After the Epstein fallout, Republicans are finally finding their spines

As President Trump hits the six-month mark in his second term, only a minority of Americans approve of his dismal job performance. His approval ratings will fall even lower as his incompetence, dishonesty, cruelty, destructive policies and efforts to rule like a dictator become ever more apparent.

The most recent RealClearPolitics average of 12 polls published between July 6 and July 20 finds that 45.5 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s overall job performance, while 52.1 percent disapprove.  

Going back to 1945, Gallup polls found only three presidents with worse average approval ratings during their terms of office: Harry Truman (45.4 percent), Trump during his first term (41.1 percent) and Joe Biden (42.2 percent). Jimmy Carter’s approval rating was tied with Trump’s, while the remaining post-World War II presidents had higher average approval ratings, led by John F. Kennedy (70.1 percent).

If Trump’s approval ratings keep sinking, as I believe they will, we can look for growing numbers of congressional Republicans to jump ship, fearing they will sink with him when they are next up for reelection. 

That means more Republican lawmakers will stop acting like Trump’s little lapdogs, kept on a tight leash, following his every command and supporting virtually every action he takes, no matter how absurd and harmful.  

Republican senators and House members need to remember that they were elected to work for the best interests of our country and their constituents — not the best interests of Trump. If they start doing this, America and the American people will be much better off. Democratic lawmakers will have the same responsibility when a Democrat is next in the White House.  

Unfortunately, Republican majorities that control the House and Senate have abdicated their responsibility under the Constitution to act as a check and balance on Trump’s desire for unbridled power.  

Trump has arguably caused more damage to our country than any president in American history. In fact, short of launching a nuclear attack on America, Russian President Vladimir Putin likely couldn’t do more damage to the U.S. than Trump has already done in the first six months of his second term. 

Republican lawmakers have let Trump and former first buddy Elon Musk reduce the size of the federal workforce by more than 100,000 dedicated civil servants through firings, layoffs and incentives to get employees to resign, with many more thousands of jobs expected to be eliminated soon.  

These reckless staffing cuts, along with big spending cuts, have made it impossible for agencies — including the Education Department, the Agency for International Development, the National Weather Service, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Voice of America and many others — to do all the things they did before Trump began his second term in January.  

To cite just a tiny fraction of examples: Billions of dollars in vital medical research on cancer and other deadly diseases that kill Americans every day has been halted, the ability to forecast and respond to natural disasters like the recent deadly floods in Texas has been weakened and people are dying in some of the poorest countries on Earth for lack of U.S. food and medical foreign aid.

Colleges are being denied vital research funds and they and K-12 schools are losing aid to educate students; federal funding for public broadcasters PBS and NPR has been eliminated.

Immigrants who committed no crime other than entering the U.S. without authorization are being seized without any due process and imprisoned, leaving no one to fill critical jobs they hold like harvesting crops and building housing.  

And we will all be hurt by Trump’s on-again, off-again tariffs on most nations around the world, which we will pay like a sales tax whenever we buy something made or grown outside the U.S. and when we buy U.S. products containing foreign materials like steel or aluminum. 

These taxes will raise prices, increase inflation and take thousands of dollars a year from most families.  

On top of all this, Medicaid and Affordable Care Act cuts in Trump’s so-called "big beautiful bill" (which should more accurately be called the "big horrible bill") could deprive an estimated 17 million of the poorest Americans of health insurance. The cuts could also force many rural hospitals to close. We can expect some people to get sicker and some to die as a result.  

Fortunately, we’re beginning to see more Republicans grow spines to stand up to Trump. Not primarily because of all the problems caused by his policies and actions described above, but because of his conduct regarding his friend Jeffrey Epstein.  

Growing numbers of congressional Republicans are demanding that the Trump administration release investigative files dealing with Epstein, a convicted sex offender who killed himself in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on new federal charges of sex trafficking underage girls.  

Even extreme Trump sycophants like House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) have called for the Epstein files to be made public, as are many prominent MAGA influencers, rejecting Trump's demands that they cease doing so and rejecting his tirade of insults directed against them for believing what he calls a “hoax” concocted by Democrats.  

Trump spent years as one of the most prominent figures spreading conspiracy theories about a “deep state” cover-up of an Epstein “client list” of rich and powerful men benefitting from Epstein’s sex trafficking. Trump also questioned whether Epstein might have been murdered in jail.  

Most damning of all, Trump said when out of office that he might release the Epstein files if he became president again. But he recently said he backed Attorney General Pam Bondi’s decision not to release any Epstein files. 

Under pressure from his base, he said in a social media post Thursday night that he had ordered Bondi to seek court approval to release grand jury transcripts in the case against Epstein. Bondi and she said she would do so. This would still keep much Justice Department material on Epstein under wraps.  

We’ll know soon if Trump’s low approval ratings and the MAGA revolt against his efforts to sweep the Epstein story under the rug is a turning point in the second Trump presidency. 

I hope it is and leads congressional Republicans to conclude that they should stop cowering in fear of Trump and start doing their jobs as public servants and defenders of our Constitution and rule of law.

Donna Brazile is a political strategist, a contributor to ABC News and former chair of the Democratic National Committee. She is the author of “Hacks: Inside the Break-ins and Breakdowns That Put Donald Trump in the White House.”