Politics

This is one of those classic weeks in a Trump presidency where too many stories are moving too fast for an individual writer to keep up. There are new tariffs, expansion of deportation operations, a will-he-or-won't-he dance about firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell, and, of course, the sudden about-face on the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein's many crimes, personal connections, and sudden death in 2019.

The news is moving so fast that I've had to write this intro four times now to update the following sentence: The latest news, per the Wall Street Journal, is that Trump sent Epstein a birthday card in 2003 with a drawing of a naked woman with the words "we have certain things in common" and wishing him "may every day be another wonderful secret." Yikes!

Earlier this week, Trump said he was done with the Epstein issue and no longer wanted the support of people who voted for him because they thought he would release more information about the sex offender’s crimes and his conspirators. The president said his administration would not be releasing any more information about the investigation into Epstein. Currently on Polymarket, you can buy p(Jeffrey Epstein is actually alive) for 3% and p(Trump will appoint a special prosecutor) at 1%.

In the background of all this, polls show Trump's position plummeting. For this week's Chart of the Week, let's take a quick look at Trump's approval overall, and on tariffs, deportations, and Epstein. The size of the hole he is in on the Epstein case is maybe the worst number I’ve ever seen for a president.