CNN’s chief data analyst Harry Enten on Thursday said President Donald Trump’s approval ratings among Republicans have improved despite backlash from his base over his administration’s handling of files tied to late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Enten — while highlighting recently-released polls from CNN/SSRS and Quinnipiac University — flagged how the president’s approval rating among the GOP has reached 88% and 90%, respectively.
Those figures marked a 2% and 3% jump from polling shared prior to the Justice Department’s findings on Epstein, whose name — in association with Trump and his administration — sparked massive interest on Google last week.
Enten said the increase in Trump’s approval ratings “surprised” him somewhat and declared that Trump is “at the apex” or close to it in terms of his popularity with Republican voters.
Despite criticism from major right-wing and MAGA world figures, Republicans are “split” with 40% approving and 36% disapproving of how the administration has handled files linked to Epstein, per Quinnipiac.
CNN polling, meanwhile, found that 40% of Republicans were dissatisfied with the DOJ’s findings (a figure larger than dissatisfied Democrats and independents) compared to 38% of GOP respondents who indicated that it didn’t matter to them either way.
Enten noted that just one Republican respondent indicated that the Epstein case was America’s top issue in the CNN poll.
“Not much of a surprise that, therefore, Donald Trump’s approval rating has not suffered with Republicans because of the Epstein case,” Enten said.
“Because the bottom line is, most Americans say it’s not up high up on their priority list.”