This weekend Donald Trump He has completed day number 300 of his second presidential term and has done so with a worrying popularity index. Because, according to the latest surveys, only 39% of Americans approve of his management compared to 57% who say they are unhappy with the New York tycoon (the remaining 4% say they do not have a formed opinion on the matter).
“Once the honeymoon is over [las primeras semanas de mandato] “Presidents tend to lose popularity, but no recent president has fallen as low as quickly as Trump,” said an analysis in the magazine this Monday. The Economist. “At the beginning of his second term, public opinion was almost evenly divided between those who approved of the president and those who did not, but now his approval rating is -18.” That is: three percentage points less than at any other time during his first term.
The collapse is not due to a single factor, but there are some that are more important than others. One of them, experts say, is economic.
Trump was re-elected after promising, among other things, that “income [de los estadounidenses] will skyrocket, inflation will disappear completely, employment will emerge strongly and the middle class will prosper like never before.” However, what prevails right now in many households in the United States is disappointment.
“It is true that inflation has been largely controlled after reaching catastrophic levels during the era of Joe Biden“, he stated Liz Wolfemagazine editor Reason. “But the tariffs are significantly hurting the average American consumer.” Something that – he adds – Trump seems to be implicitly recognizing by establishing more and more exceptions in his trade war.
For example, the following button: the American leader stated at the beginning of November that this year the price of the typical dinner Thanksgiving –turkey, etc.– would be 25% cheaper than last year. Although Trump was referring specifically to a ‘pack’ offered by the supermarket chain Walmartsince he made those statements, food prices – in general – have risen approximately 2.7% since Thanksgiving 2024.
The importance of Epstein
Another of the relevant factors when analyzing his low popularity would have to do with the friendship that Trump maintained for years with Jeffrey Epstein. The powerful millionaire who rubbed shoulders with global elites until a police investigation revealed, in 2005, that Epstein was a sexual predator and abused minors.
The fact is that, in the absence of being able to count on the testimony of Epstein himself because he committed suicide in 2019, what remains to be able to investigate who knew what is known as the “Epstein Files.” That is: the Epstein files. An endless number of documents that, theoretically, could shed a lot of light on both the millionaire’s social relationships and his businesses and privacy.
However, shortly into his second term and after having promised to open Epstein’s documents to the public, Trump refused to publish the voluminous files kept by the Department of Justice in their basements. Which made a part of its base – the movement MAGA [Make America Great Again]– raised his eyebrow. What was behind such a refusal? some of his followers wondered. Does Trump have something to hide?
Shortly after that, reliable reports began to emerge indicating that the president’s name appears quite often in these documents. A fact that, in itself, does not prove anything (Epstein rubbed shoulders with the elites for many years and Trump was always part of that elite) but which, added to the refusal to want to open the files to the public, raised even more eyebrows among quite a few of his followers.
Then came the play of Republican Partysupposedly orchestrated by Trump, to ‘close’ the House of Representatives for nearly two months so that the congresswoman could not be sworn in – say gossip – Adelita Grijalvaof the Arizona Democratic Party, and so that the opening of Epstein’s files to the public could not be voted on.
That’s where things were when last week, with Congress open again because it was urgent to agree on the federal budget, the issue of Epstein picked up speed again. A case around which there will finally be a vote – to see whether the files are opened or not – this Tuesday.
Once Trump has understood that this vote is imminent and that he cannot do anything to stop it, experts say, he has chosen to get ahead of events. Hence, on Sunday night he wrote on his social network, Truth Socialthe following: “House Republicans should vote in favor of the release of the Epstein files, since we have nothing to hide and it is time to leave this farce promoted by the Democratic Party”.
“Trump has changed his strategy because he knew he was going to lose anyway.” [el voto] and wants to deal with the situation in the best way possible,” they explained. Jack Blanchard y Dasha Burnsfrom the magazine Politicoalluding to the number of congressmen close to the president who nevertheless planned to vote in favor of opening the files. Because? Because, again, it is what an important part of the Republican Party bases want and those congressmen also have to win local elections.
“We are witnessing how the president’s extraordinary authority over his party is fading… although now, at least, he can try to say that the result of the vote was what he wanted,” stated the chroniclers of Politico.
Internal fractures
However, this change in attitude comes after Trump has publicly fallen out with one of his main supporters within the Republican Party and one of the spokespersons for the most radical sectors of the MAGA movement. The congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Greene, one of Trump’s most loyal figures over the years, has also been one of the most critical of his position regarding the Epstein case. And he has made it known for months. Which is why Trump called Greene a “lunatic” last Friday and said that, from that moment on, he would no longer have her support.
Following Trump’s comment, Greene posted on her social media that she had sent him a text message about the sex offender and that, she said, is what had angered the president.
“It’s amazing how hard he fights to prevent the release of Epstein’s files… to this extent,” Greene said. “But the truth is, most Americans wish he would fight just as hard to help the forgotten men and women of America, fed up with wars and foreign causes, bankrupting themselves trying to feed their families, and losing hope of achieving the American dream.”
Trump’s withdrawal of support for Greene comes at a politically delicate moment for the Republican Party after the electoral defeats a couple of weeks ago in the states of Virginia y New Jerseywhere a new governor was elected. It also comes less than a year before the midterm elections –midterms– that will decide which party controls both the House of Representatives like him Senate until the end of his presidency.
So now Trump is claiming the Epstein files are a Democrat hoax? Lol.
MAGA is dead. Good riddance.
— Nicholas J. Fuentes (@NickJFuentes) July 12, 2025
The ‘affair’ Sources
Trump also wanted to speak out this Sunday on another issue that is causing a stir within the MAGA movement: the decision of the famous presenter Tucker Carlson to give voice to the white nationalist Nick Fuentes in one of his interviews. Something that very influential figures within American conservatism such as Senator Ted Cruz or the commentator Ben Shapiro they have condemned.
Trump, however, declared that Carlson “is good,” that he had done “good interviews in the past” and that “if he wants to interview Nick Fuentes, who I don’t know much about, then he should do it.” At the end of the day, he added, it is the people who must decide what is interesting and what is not.
Needless to say, Trump’s position matters, a lot, in conservative circles where supporting or condemning Carlson for giving Fuentes a voice has become another major dividing line.