The Jeffrey Epstein case has grown into a full-blown problem for Republicans who were already failing Americans. And that feels like a lose-lose scenario as 2026 midterm elections loom.
Epstein file controversy sends House home early
The House adjourned early amid the Jeffrey Epstein file tensions. The move sparked criticism from Democrats.
What are you doing during your summer vacation? U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson apparently plans to spend his six-week break trying to get his story straight about the Epstein files fiasco.
That’s a daunting challenge for the Republican from Louisiana, who has flip-flopped from calling for “transparency” on the issue to sending the House home early on July 22 to shut down Republican attempts to release those files.
But that’s life when you unconditionally surrender the Article I powers that the U.S. Constitution grants Congress as a coequal branch of government to a scandal-prone presidency held by Donald Trump.
If Johnson’s vacation were a scary summer movie, we’d have to call it “I Know What You Did With the Epstein Files.”
Things don’t look much better for the Republicans who are in control of the U.S. Senate. Trump wants that chamber to work through the summer break so it can rubber-stamp his nominees for various positions. If this also were a horror film, it would be a sequel – “No Way Out, Again” – because Trump did the same thing with a compliant Senate during his first term in 2018.
So here are the options for congressional Republicans from now until early September: Go home and endure town halls with constituents angry about Trump’s broken promise to release the Epstein files and the looming negative impacts of his signature budget bill. Or stay in Washington and answer a growing rush of questions as the Epstein news keeps beating like a “Tell-Tale Heart.”
Scary stuff, indeed.
Epstein files put a stop to Republicans’ victory lap
Johnson has served less as a speaker of the House and more like a servant to Trump’s expectations. And that was working for him.
He helped pass Trump’s budget bill, which slashes health care for the working poor while offering short-term tax relief for some in return for permanent tax cuts for America’s wealthiest people. He did that as well with Trump’s “rescission” package, which canceled federal funding that Johnson’s own House had previously approved.
He and Trump were looking forward to a victory lap on all that, despite consistent polling that shows a majority of American voters don’t care for it at all.
But the scandal surrounding Jeffrey Epstein, who has been dead for six years, will not pass away. Trump exploited conspiracy theories on the reelection campaign trail about his old cruising buddy, a convicted pedophile who died in prison in 2019 during Trump’s first term while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
But then Trump, who promised while campaigning in 2024 to release the Department of Justice’s files on Epstein, decided recently to keep them secret, enraging his own supporters and putting his Republican allies in Congress in a tight spot.
Maybe it’s just a coincidence that Attorney General Pam Bondi is reported to have briefed Trump in May that he is mentioned in those very files that his supporters want to see released. So Trump’s in a tight spot, too.
Johnson’s slipshod response to the Epstein secrecy has been to advocate for transparency, which Trump doesn’t want, and then revert to presidential servitude by trying to stamp out any attempts at transparency.
This has provoked something we rarely see anymore – bipartisanship – as Republican and Democratic members of the House voted together to subpoena the Epstein files. This doesn’t look like it will simmer down in six weeks.
Americans are clearly unhappy with Trump’s Republican regime
Republicans are hitting the road with a story that isn’t selling well. A July 23 Fox News poll found that 67% of American voters think Trump’s administration has not been transparent about Epstein, including 60% of the Republicans surveyed and 56% of Trump’s so-called MAGA supporters.
And then there’s this: Fox News found that 4 out of 5 people in the survey said they were following the Epstein case. We’re closing in on the end of July – vacation season – and these people are tuned all the way in on this.
Trump’s budget bill was also underwater in the poll, with 58% disapproving and 39% in support.
That makes for testy town halls, if the Republicans dare to hold them in the next six weeks. And that feels like a lose-lose scenario with the 2026 midterm elections looming ever larger.
Face your angry constituents and be ready to go viral on social media, exactly the kind of things that would-be opponents mine for campaign commercials. Or duck and cover and get branded a coward, exactly the kind of thing that would-be opponents exploit for campaign commercials.
No matter which way Republicans go, at home or in Washington, they should first ask themselves: Does Trump care about how any of this impacts me and my future in politics, or is he only interested in protecting himself? I think they already know the answer. Trump is – now, in the past, in the future, always – looking out only for himself.
That prompts two more questions. Why is he working so hard to keep the Epstein files secret? And do you really want to be on the record helping him with that secrecy if the files are finally released?
Follow USA TODAY columnist Chris Brennan on X, formerly known as Twitter: @ByChrisBrennan. Sign up for his weekly newsletter, Translating Politics, here.
