President Donald Trump’s approval rating has ticked up slightly, according to a new exclusive Daily Mail/J.L. Partners poll, even as voters give him poor marks over his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
The survey shows 49% of voters now approve of Trump’s job performance, up one point from earlier in July. However, he still faces a net negative rating, with 51% disapproving—down one point from the previous poll, the Daily Mail reports. Still, an approval rating of nearly 50 percent in such a divided country is considered a huge accomplishment.
The poll numbers indicate that Trump is weathering a difficult news cycle dominated by the Epstein files and criticism over his administration’s failure to release them, despite campaign promises to do so. His job approval has risen one point since June, marking his highest rating since May.
“The news saga might have seemed terrible for Trump in the last few days, but it isn’t having an impact on his approval rating,” James Johnson, JL Partners co-founder told the Daily Mail. “In fact, we think it’s going up, from 48 percent to 49 percent, making this his best approval rating since May. His ratings with the base is holding up too, unchanged on 91 percent with Republicans.”
Only 15% of respondents said they believed the Justice Department memo released by Attorney General Pam Bondi, which concluded that Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide in prison and that no “client list” existed for public release.
In contrast, 47% said they did not trust the administration’s account and believed more secrets remain hidden. Another 23% said they accepted the memo’s findings but still believe further information in the case has yet to be uncovered, the Daily Mail reported.
