CNN’s chief data analyst Harry Enten said that President Donald Trump would “love this story to go away” — but interest is only surging “higher and higher.”
Enten on Friday pointed to a new memo released earlier this week from the Justice Department and FBI, which concluded that disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein did not keep a “client list,” blackmail public figures or was murdered in his jail cell in 2019. Its findings have been met with both outrage and speculation from MAGA loyalists and conspiracy theorists, as many have pushed the Trump administration to release all documents related to the sex-trafficking case.
Attorney General Pam Bondi had pledged to make all of the files public, telling Fox News in February that Epstein’s “client list” was “sitting on my desk right now to review.” Bondi had attempted to clarify her previous remarks during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, claiming that she meant the entirety of the documents. Trump had lashed out at a reporter who posed the question about the memo, asking “Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? This guy’s been talked about for years.”
Enten said that the Trump administration’s response to findings should be seen as a “massive unforced error.” He noted that searches for “Epstein” on Google this week have skyrocketed by 1,200% compared to last, and it is the top topic looked up alongside Trump on the search engine.
“Donald Trump normally leans in, leans into stories in which there’s controversy, like tariffs for example. This is a story in which he’s trying to get away from, basically saying ‘Why is anyone still interested in this story?’” Enten said.
“But the bottom line is people are very interested in this story to historic degrees, at least this week,” he continued.
When comparing “Epstein” to “tariffs” or “Grok,” tech billionaire Elon Musk’s AI platform that called itself “MechaHitler” and made other antisemitic posts on X this week, the convicted sex offender’s name had been Googled 1.4 times more than tariffs, and 2.5 times more than Grok.
“It’s one of the few stories in which both Steve Bannon and Elon Musk are going after Trump, at least the Trump administration. He’s managed to bring together two parties of the administration, or two parts of the fan base, that have normally been against each other,” Enten said.
When asked about whether Americans see the Trump administration releasing the files in the future, Enten found that betting market odds on the platform Kalshi showed that they believe there is a 20% chance it would happen, as of Friday, having declined from 39% on June 11 and 43% on May 11.
“I think that there are going to be a lot of the normally MAGA fanbase who are going to be very disappointed, and this is all a self-inflicted error by Trump and the Trump administration,” he said.
A number of Trump’s most ardent supporters have already expressed frustration that the administration has appeared to walk back on their previous stances on the case. Many have took issue with Bondi, and spared the president their ire, calling on her resignation or firing from office.
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