People lie, but numbers generally don’t. A new survey suggests that many likely voters believe President Donald Trump’s decision to launch military action against Iran may have been influenced in part by the controversy surrounding the Jeffrey Epstein files.
Jeffrey Epstein was a financier who died by suicide in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Earlier this year, the Department of Justice released more than 3 million pages of material connected to Epstein under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, legislation signed by Trump in November. The records include roughly 2,000 videos and 180,000 images, bringing the total volume of released material to nearly 3.5 million pages.
The poll, conducted between March 6 and March 8 among 1,272 likely voters, found that 52% believe Trump was “at least partly motivated to take military action against Iran in order to distract from the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.” 40% said the files had no role in the decision, while 8% were unsure.
Responses varied significantly by political affiliation. 81 percent of Democrats said the Epstein files were at least a partial factor, compared with 52 percent of independents. Among Republicans, 26 percent agreed with that view, while 64 percent rejected the idea.
When it comes to the numbers, the survey was conducted by Data for Progress and funded by Drop Site News and Zeteo.
In case you’ve been under a rock, Trump ordered Operation Epic Fury on February 28. Subsequent airstrikes carried out by the United States and Israel in Iran have reportedly killed more than 1,300 people, according to Iranian officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The Pentagon reported Tuesday that about 140 U.S. service members have been wounded during the conflict. At least seven American service members have been killed so far.