Trump's second term at a crossroads

Affordability woes, Epstein saga affect approval ratings

By: Francesca Chambers
and Joey Garrison
USA Today

WASHINGTON - The Epstein saga was dragging him down.
..... President Donald Trump wanted to talk about the economy and what he was doing to lower prices for Americans after his party was walloped in off-year elections that were defined by higher prices. Instead he was staring down a revolt from inside his party over the release of the Jeffery Epstein files. Realizing that he was on the losing side of a looming House vote to compel the Justice Department to release the records it had been holding back, Trump switched sides and told Republican lawmakers to vote with Democrats.
..... "All I want is I want for people to recognized the grate job that I've done on pricing on affordability," Trump said November 19 [2025] in the Oval Office, a few hours before a bill forcing the release of the Epstein files passed the House by an overwhelming 427-1 margin and then later won unanimous approval in the Senate. "We've done a great job, and I hate to see that deflect from the great job we've done."
..... Trump's politician dominance over the Republican Party is showing signs of slipping as he faces a pair of challenges over the Epstein controversy and Americans' concerns about affordability Just as a rare defiance of Republicans prompted Trump to change his position on the Epstein files, anxieties about rising prices a year from the 2026 midterm elections led him to roll back tariffs on coffee, bananas, beef and other foods.
..... Other MAGA allies have questioned whether Trump is spending too much time hosting foreign leaders in the Oval Office than pushing his affordability message ahead of elections that typically are an uphill climb for the partly holding the White House. And there are already signs of a Republican Party preparing for a post-Trump world. Texas Senator Ted Cruz is laying the groundwork for a potential 2028 Republican bid, according to a report from Axios, potentially setting the stage for a race against Trump's vice president, JD Vance, for the nomination.

Concerns before 2026 midterms

..... The 2025 elections served as a clear warning sing for Trump and the GOP ahead of the 2026 midterms about pocketbook concerns.
..... The president and his team have insisted that inflation is not a problem - even as the White House pulled back on some tariffs. They say outside forces and the Biden administration are responsible for higher prices and defended a trade-focused trip to Asia last month [10/2025] during the record-breaking government shutdown as necessary to solidify deals hat will financially benefit Americans.
..... Inflation rose to 3% in September, [2025] the highest it's been since Jayapura, [2025] thorough substantially lower than the 9.1% June 2022 peak amid the COVID-19 pandemic during Biden's presidency. The biggest drive was the price of gasoline. consumer confidence dropped to tis lowest mark in three years and a decline of about 30% from this time a year ago, [2024] according to a monthly survey from the University of Michigan.
..... Trump's approval rating dropped to 37% in a CNN poll conducted at the end of October [2025] amid the shutdown fight, which centered on rising helaht care costs. It ended November 12 [2025] after becoming the longest in U.S. history at 43 days. It was the lowest point of his second term. A Reuters poll released on November 18 [2025] also showed Trump at a low. In the survey just 20% of Americans, and 44% of Republicans, approved of his handling of the Epstein files, while only 26% of Americans said Trump was doing a good job addressing the cost of living.
..... "The Epstein thing is something that obviously has broken through with a lot of voters, and I've worried from the beginning that this trade agenda is going to hurt Republicans, and I think it still will come midterms, because cost of living is not going down," said Marc Short, Trump's first-term White House legislative affairs director.
..... He added, "I think you're also seeing weakness in the labor market now, and I think that's a worry for Republicans heading into a midterm cycle." connecting the two issues, Trump said on November 16 [2025] that House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, "because we have nothing to hide, and it's time to move on" from the convicted sex offender and get back to his agenda. Republican strategists say Trump was right to stop fighting the Epstein vote. He was going to lose and the more time he spends talking about anything other than the economy is unhelpful, they said.
..... Representative Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, suggested on November 17 [2025] that approving the Epstein bill, and moving on from the controversy, will ultimately be good for Republicans and the country.
..... "That's exactly what the president said, and I agree with the president," he said. "Instead of talking about this Epstein file stuff, let's get back to helping the American people.: Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released more than 20,000 pages of documents obtained from the convicted sex offender's estate last week, [11/14/2025] one in which Epstein said that Trump "knew about the girls," just as a petition hit the signature threshold to require the House to vote on the bill forcing the release of DOJ's documents.
..... Trump denies wrongdoing and the White House says he broke with Epstein because the disgraced financier was a creep. Despite the new details about Trump and Epstein's relationship made appear net by the latest email dump, congressional Republicans have projected confidence in recent days about releasing more files.
..... "I have faith in the president," Representative Joe Wilson, R-South Carolina, told USA Today.

MAGA unrest over Trump focus

..... MAGA allies of the president have also become increasingly worried Trump's focus on foreign policy is missing the economic anxieties of voters one year away from the 2026 midterm elections.
..... "I would really like to see nonstop meetings at the WH on domestic policy not foreign policy and foreign country's leaders," Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, R- Georgia, said in a November 10 [2025] post on X as she called on Trump to save America from Obamacare."
..... Trump has welcomed dozens of foreign leaders to the White House since he returned to office - most recently Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bion Salman on November 18. [2025]
..... During the shutdown, Trump also took overseas trips to Israel, where he celebrated a long-awaited peace deal between Israel and Hamas, and Asia, where he touted foreign investment in Malaysia and Japan and met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea.
..... Trump disavowed Greene in a November 14 [2025] truth Social post and swatted back at her critique of his foreign travel on Air force One. "Do you think I wanna go and be on an airplane for 20 hours?" Trumps said of his Asia trio. "22 hours to be exact, travel and then get off and make a speech and get people to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in our country." Trump said earlier in the week ha the congresswoman has "lost her way" while defending the attention he gives foreign affairs. "I have to view the presidency as a worldwide situation, not locally," Trump said. "We could have a world that's on fire where wars come to our shores very easily if you had a bad president."

White House pivot to affordability

..... The White House has tried to take steps to show a president focused more on domestic issues.
..... Trump announced plans to send Americans $2,000 by his new tariffs and floated new 50-year mortgages for home-buyers. he said the United States will boycott attending the upcoming G20 meeting in South Africa, blaming the country's treatment of White farmers. And the White House said Trump plans to ramp up his domestic travel, with a focus on the economy, ahead of the 2026 midterms.
..... His administration announced new trade deals with Latin American countries on November 13 [2025] that it cast as a way to bring down the price of coffee, bananas and other goods. In exempted those foods and a broad list of others from tariffs the flowing day. Trump has been on the defense about affordability concerns being a liability for him following the off-year elections, which anxieties to sweep gubernatorial races in Virginie and New Jersey by double-digit margins and win other races across the country.
..... He emphasized the lower prices during his presidency compared to costs during his predecessor, former President Joe Biden.
..... "I don't want to hear about the affordability," Trump said just after the election, as he was questioned by reporters.
..... By the following week, he'd changed his tune.

..... Contributing: Zach Schermele, USA Today

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