President Donald Trump met with reporters in Scotland on Monday to tout his new trade deal with the European Union. Accompanied by United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Trump held court for more than an hour, taking questions on trade, China, the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, and more.
One subject that barely came up, about 50 minutes into the news conference, was the dead sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Spoiler alert: No news was made on that front.
If you follow things, you're probably seeing a lot of stories suggesting some sort of undefined scandal involving Trump and Epstein, who were friends in the 1990s and remained so until 2004, two years before Epstein was first charged with a crime. You're seeing it not because reporters have discovered new information to change the substance of what is already known. Still, because Democrats and their allies in the media hope that repetition of the story will bring down Trump's approval rating and perhaps shake loose some currently unknown, damaging revelation they hope exists.
At least so far, it's not working, and a new poll shows how far Democrats are falling short. In a Wall Street Journal survey taken July 16-20, respondents consistently expressed more confidence in the Republican Party than the Democratic Party to handle key issues, and they expressed more positive feelings toward Trump and Republicans than toward Democrats.
First, the favorable/unfavorable ratings. The poll found that 45% of those surveyed had a very or somewhat favorable impression of Trump, versus 52% who had a very or somewhat unfavorable impression. For the Republican Party, the numbers were 43% favorable versus 54% unfavorable, and for the Democratic Party, the numbers were 33% favorable and 63% unfavorable.
The big news in that? The Democrats' 33-63 rating -- the worst for the party since 1990. Indeed, the headline of the article was "Democrats Get Lowest Rating From Voters in 35 Years, WSJ Poll Finds."
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The poll suggests that Democrats' current strategy, focused mostly on Trump-bashing, hasn't paid off in higher ratings. The reason: While many voters might not like Trump and Republicans, or be ambivalent about them, they have less confidence in Democrats.
"On the whole, voters disapprove of the president's handling of the economy, inflation, tariffs, and foreign policy," the Journal reports. "And yet in each case, the new Journal poll found, voters nonetheless say they trust Republicans rather than Democrats to handle those same issues in Congress."
Start with Trump's ratings on handling issues. For the economy, the Journal found him at 44-53 -- that is, with 44% approval and 53% disapproval. On the specific issue of inflation, he was 44-55. On tariffs 40-57. On foreign policy, 47-51.
Then look at the Republican vs. Democrat version of those questions. When asked which party is best able to handle the economy, 39% said Republicans, while 27% said Democrats. On inflation specifically, 38% said Republicans and 28% said Democrats. On tariffs, 37% said Republicans and 30% said Democrats. On foreign policy, 39% said Republicans and 31% said Democrats.
The numbers suggest Democrats, who are happy targeting Trump from dawn till dusk, are not convincing voters they can do a better job than the president and his party.
That's where Epstein comes in. Much as they did from 2017 to 2019, when they accused Trump of colluding with Russia, many Democrats appear ready to make the case against Trump based on the Epstein matter a centerpiece of their opposition to the president.
Will that rile the voters? And more specifically, will it make voters angry in the absence of any powerful revelations about Epstein -- and continued accomplishments by Trump? Democrats appear to hope so. During this summer break, the Journal reports, Democrats "are hoping for a repeat of this spring's recess, when angry voters flooded into town-hall meetings, heckling Republican lawmakers and challenging them to do more to push back against Trump."
Maybe so. But success changes things. And Trump has had several significant successes in his first six months in office, enough to satisfy many independent or on-the-fence voters that he is making positive contributions to the country. Of course, hard-core Democrats and their allies in the Resistance are apoplectic about Trump because they are always apoplectic about Trump. What the new poll suggests is that for Democrats, anger is just not enough.
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