President Donald Trump is confronting one of the sharpest political downturns of his second term, as a new poll shows his approval rating sliding to its lowest point since returning to the White House — and his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files controversy emerging as an unexpected flashpoint inside his own coalition.

A Reuters/Ipsos survey released Tuesday shows Trump at 38 percent approval, a nine-point drop from the start of his second term. The decline comes as the administration struggles to explain its shifting stance on whether to release files linked to the late convicted predator. whose political connections have long fueled partisan suspicion. The president’s support stands only marginally better in a Decision Desk HQ average, which puts him at 42.4 percent approval, with his disapproval now cresting above 55 percent.

Democrats see an opening. After years of attempting to tie Trump to Epstein’s social orbit, the party is now weaponizing the episode as a character test that they claim validates their long-held attacks. They argue that the documents dispute undermines the image Trump has spent years cultivating: the fighter who claims to expose corruption rather than conceal it.

Republicans, meanwhile, are struggling to find a unified response. Trump’s decision Sunday to pressure GOP lawmakers to vote for the files’ release represented a dramatic reversal. Just days earlier, the administration had resisted doing so, citing privacy concerns and procedural barriers. But aboard Air Force One, the president signaled a change of direction — a move that advisers say was driven, not by the opposition’s attacks, but by fears of alienating his core supporters.

“As I said on Friday night aboard Air Force One to the Fake News Media, House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. Within the West Wing, that defiant posture is seen as the only viable strategy for a president whose brand is built on projection of strength. Anything less risks creating exactly what Democrats want: the perception of a cover-up.

But new polling shows that the damage may already be underway. Only 20 percent of respondents in the Reuters/Ipsos survey said they approve of Trump’s handling of the Epstein-related documents. Nearly 60 percent disapprove. A fifth of the country — 21 percent — either isn’t sure or declined to answer, underscoring the fog of uncertainty that Democrats hope to turn into suspicion and that Republicans fear will become political quicksand.

The controversy comes at a precarious moment. The administration is already bruised by a chaotic government shutdown battle and a string of Democratic victories in recent elections that party strategists say are a referendum on the president’s second-term agenda. The White House insists the president remains undeterred, pointing to resilient support among the GOP’s hardcore base, but the Epstein files dispute risks slicing into the heart of that strength.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)