Critics of President Donald Trump are accusing him of attempting to distract from the Jeffrey Epstein files because the administration faces pushback for extra transparency relating to the case.
Amongst a latest flurry of wide-ranging posts on his social media platform, Trump on Sunday demanded that the Washington Commanders reverse the group’s identify change, claiming that there’s “an enormous clamoring for this.”
He then followed up a number of hours later, saying, “My assertion on the Washington Redskins has completely blown up, however solely in a really optimistic method,” and threatened to not facilitate a deal for the soccer group’s new stadium in Washington, D.C., if it doesn’t change its identify.
In response to the submit, Joe Walsh, a former Republican congressman who ran towards Trump for president in 2020, stated on social media, “Trump is scared to loss of life of the Epstein recordsdata.”
President Donald Trump speaks at an occasion for the signing of the GENIUS Act, a invoice that regulates stablecoins, a sort of cryptocurrency, within the East Room of the White Home, Friday, July 18, 2025, in Washington, D.C.
Alex Brandon/AP
The Division of Justice and FBI’s announcement in a July 6 memo that they might not launch any extra recordsdata on Epstein, after the Trump administration earlier promised to take action, has angered lots of the president’s supporters. The memo additionally stated they decided that there is no such thing as a Epstein “consumer listing,” which has been the topic of conspiracy theories boosted by the FBI’s Kash Patel and Dan Bongino previous to becoming a member of the Trump administration, additional angering a few of Trump’s most vocal supporters.
After the Trump administration introduced the release Monday of 230,000 recordsdata associated to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Rev. Al Sharpton claimed the transfer was a “determined try and distract folks from the firestorm engulfing Trump over the Epstein recordsdata and the general public unraveling of his credibility among the many MAGA base.”
California Sen. Adam Schiff has additionally accused the president of attempting to distract from the Epstein firestorm. In a post on Sunday, Trump continued his assaults on Schiff, claiming the Democrat ought to go to jail for allegedly falsifying mortgage paperwork relating to his Maryland residence. Schiff beforehand stated that Trump’s accusation is a “handy distraction” from the Epstein controversy.
“What actually is occurring right here is that is Donald Trump attempting to result in political retribution, retaliation, attempting to distract from his Epstein recordsdata downside,” Schiff said in a video message final week.
Amongst different latest posts, Trump on Monday called for a direct finish to cashless bail and railed towards the federal choose overseeing Harvard College’s challenge to the Trump administration’s withholding billions of federal funds from the college, calling her a “TOTAL DISASTER.”
He additionally weighed in on the case involving Bryan Kohberger, who is about to be sentenced this week after pleading guilty to murdering 4 College of Idaho college students, in a social media post Monday that seems to be the primary time that the president had spoken out publicly concerning the 2022 killings.
Trump additionally turned his consideration to the Wall Avenue Journal, pushing again towards what he called a “usually untruthful story” revealed Sunday that reported that previously few days, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent privately laid out his case to Trump for why he should not attempt to push out Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.
Trump’s criticism of the Wall Avenue Journal comes days after the president filed a $10 billion libel lawsuit towards the paper, Rupert Murdoch and others over the Thursday report about Trump’s alleged birthday message despatched to Epstein in 2003, which he says doesn’t exist.
The president additionally reposted a video on his social media platform on Sunday that included faux footage of former President Barack Obama being arrested within the Oval Workplace and behind bars. Trump has in latest days baselessly accused Obama and different Democrats of creating up and doctoring Epstein recordsdata.
Democratic strategist Sawyer Hackett argued that with posts just like the Washington Commanders identify change and Obama arrest video, Trump is making an attempt to “distract from the Epstein scandal.”
ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith additionally called Trump’s Commanders remarks “petty” and “evasive,” claiming in a broadcast of ESPN’s “First Take” on Monday that Trump was making an attempt to distract his base from “different points, together with the Epstein recordsdata.”
President Donald Trump departs after signing the GENIUS Act, a invoice that regulates stablecoins, a sort of cryptocurrency, within the East Room of the White Home, July 18, 2025, in Washington, D.C.
Alex Brandon/AP
Trump did address the Epstein uproar on Saturday, reiterating on his social media platform that he has ordered the Justice Division to request the discharge of extra particulars on the probe into the rich financier and convicted intercourse offender, who died by suicide in jail in 2019.
The transfer follows calls from each Republicans and Democrats for transparency within the wake of the DOJ and FBI’s July 6 memo. Although in his submit on Saturday, Trump claimed that releasing grand jury testimony within the Epstein case might do little to quell the outspoken criticism of his administration’s dealing with of the case, writing, “Even when the Court docket gave its full and unwavering approval, nothing shall be adequate for the troublemakers and radical left lunatics making the request. It’ll all the time be extra, extra, extra.”
White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt maintained on Monday that Trump is being clear along with his base concerning the Epstein case.
“He is aware of what his supporters need. It is transparency, and he has given them that on all accounts on the subject of all the things this administration has completed,” Leavitt informed reporters.
“No query is off limits right here at this White Home, not only for the president, however myself as nicely,” she added.
Past the dealing with of the Epstein case, Trump seems to have misplaced floor on points that after had been amongst his strongest attributes, together with immigration.
A latest Gallup poll reveals Trump’s approval ranking on immigration is underwater amongst American adults, and significantly amongst Hispanic People. Amongst American adults, 62% disapprove of Trump’s dealing with of immigration, in accordance with the ballot. Solely 21% of Hispanic People approve of how Trump is dealing with immigration points, in accordance with Gallup.
In recent polling from the Related Press-NORC Heart for Public Affairs Analysis (AP-NORC), solely 43% of U.S. adults stated they authorised of his dealing with of immigration — down from the 49% in March, the ballot discovered.
Along with immigration, Trump earned lower than 50% approval on each challenge included within the ballot, together with the financial system, authorities spending, taxes, commerce, well being care and pure catastrophe aid. General, 58% of U.S. adults disapprove of his job as president, the ballot discovered.
