A majority of Americans think that Donald Trump’s surprise attack on Iran was an effort to distract the public from his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, according to new research.
Fifty-two percent of likely voters polled by the progressive think tank Data for Progress said they believed Trump at least partly launched strikes on Iran on Feb 28 to distract from his once-close relationship with the late financier and convicted sex offender, which was thrust back into view following the Department of Justice’s botched release of the so-called “Epstein files.”
The survey—funded by Zeteo and Drop Site News and conducted among 1,272 likely voters—also found that at least a quarter of Republicans shared the same belief.
Additionally, a striking two-thirds of people under 45 echoed such claims, according to the survey.
The poll also found that 55 percent of respondents disapproved of the war, a finding consistent with several other surveys.
Last week, a separate poll from CNN found that nearly six in 10 Americans oppose the president and Israel’s coordinated strikes on Iran, which, as of publication, have claimed the lives of at least seven U.S. service members.
The president, 79, said at a press conference Monday that he expects the war he launched to end “very soon.”
But a majority of those surveyed by CNN—56 percent—said they believe long-term military conflict between the United States and Iran is at least “somewhat likely.”
Even lawmakers have accused the president of starting a war to distract from Epstein, who died by suicide in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019.
A day after Trump struck Iran, Rep. Thomas Massie issued a pointed reminder that war would not distract him from his push to force the Justice Department to release all documents linked to Epstein.
“PSA: Bombing a country on the other side of the globe won’t make the Epstein files go away, any more than the Dow going above 50,000 will,” the Kentucky libertarian wrote on X.
Massie is one of several Trump critics who have accused the president of staging foreign policy crises and other White House controversies to deflect scrutiny from his historic relationship with Epstein, particularly as new Justice Department documents related to the late sex trafficker’s crimes are released.
Massie and his Democratic ally, Rep. Ro Khanna, spearheaded the Epstein Files Transparency Act—which Trump begrudgingly signed into law—directing the Justice Department to release all files connected to Epstein.
Just this week, it was reported that documents detailing FBI interviews with an Epstein victim who accused Trump of sexually abusing her when she was 13 are reportedly being kept under wraps by the Department of Justice. The Department of Justice published 16 pages regarding the accuser last week, yet more than three dozen pages remain missing from the Epstein files, according to an analysis by NPR, including “files related to allegations that President Trump sexually abused a minor.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
