After months of opposition, President Trump finally signed a law last week requiring the Justice Department to release all of its files related to the investigation of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

But even then, just a quarter of Americans (25%) think the president has “followed through” on his promise to make the Epstein files public, according to a new Yahoo/YouGov poll. Nearly twice as many say he has not (48%), and the rest (27%) are unsure.

The new survey of 1,684 U.S. adults was conducted from Nov. 21 to Nov. 24 — immediately after Congress passed and Trump signed the bipartisan measure known as the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which compels the Justice Department to “publish (in a searchable and downloadable format) all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials” related to Epstein within 30 days.

The bill itself, which only one lawmaker opposed, is remarkably popular with the public: A full 84% of Americans approve of it, while just 3% disapprove. Reflecting the measure’s near-unanimous support on Capitol Hill, Republicans approve almost as often (83%) as independents (87%) and Democrats (90%).

In July, 84% of Americans told Yahoo and YouGov they thought Epstein was “guilty of most of the crimes he was charged with” — and the same number (84%) said they would approve of “the government releasing all of the information it has” on him. Those numbers are identical today.

Yet questions remain about the president’s handling of the issue.

Trump’s reversals on Epstein

In July 2019, Epstein was arrested by federal agents and accused of paying dozens of teenage girls, some as young as 14, to perform sex acts. (Epstein previously pleaded guilty and was convicted in 2008 by a Florida state court of procuring a child for prostitution and soliciting a prostitute.)

In August 2019, Epstein was found dead in his jail cell in Manhattan while awaiting trial.

Since then, the disgraced financier has been the focus of conspiracy theories that claim he was murdered to conceal the names of powerful people on a secret “client list.”

While campaigning in 2020 — and, later, in 2024 — Trump repeatedly speculated about the nature of Epstein’s death; last year, in response to a question from Fox News, he said he would declassify the Epstein files if reelected.

After returning to the White House, Trump directed the Justice Department to conduct an exhaustive review of the evidence it had collected (including more than 100,000 pages of physical records, grand jury testimony and digital materials recovered from devices seized at Epstein’s properties).

In July, the DOJ and FBI released a two-page joint memo concluding that Epstein had “committed suicide in his cell” and compiled no “client list” — echoing previous findings by the Biden administration.

The move enraged some Trump loyalists, who accused the president and his administration of breaking their promise to release all of the Epstein files. It also put the spotlight back on Trump’s own relationship with Epstein.

Trump then spent months lashing out at supporters for their interest in what he repeatedly referred to as the “Epstein Hoax” and pressuring Republican lawmakers to block the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

When it became clear earlier this month that the bill would pass, however, Trump suddenly reversed course, writing on his Truth Social platform that “House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide.”

“I DON’T CARE!” Trump added.

What Americans think of Trump’s approach to the Epstein files

In the aftermath of his U-turn, overall approval for how the president has dealt with “the Jeffrey Epstein investigation” (28%) has risen by 7 percentage points compared to where it was in July (21%) — in large part because Republicans are much more likely to say they approve now (58%) than they were before (44%).

But the majority of Americans (54%) still disapprove — by a 2-to-1 margin — of Trump’s approach to the Epstein files, even though he has now seemingly given them what they want.

Why? For one thing, a similar majority of Americans (52%) still say the president has “mostly opposed releasing the Epstein Files since returning to office earlier this year” — despite the events of the last week or so. Just 24% say Trump has “mostly favored” their release in recent months.

Likewise, 50% of Americans say the Trump administration has so far released less of the Epstein files than Trump promised. Only 15% say the administration has released “about as much” as Trump promised — and a mere 3% say the administration has released more than Trump promised.

This isn’t a purely partisan sentiment. To be sure, the “less than promised” response is biggest among Democrats (73%) and independents (57%). But just over 1 in 4 Republicans (26%) also say Trump has delivered less than promised, and a full 38% of Republicans say they’re not sure. Only 30% of Republicans think Trump has released about as much as he promised he would.

Finally, Americans generally disagree with the arguments Trump has made to justify not releasing more of the Epstein files. To test whether his messaging on the issue has been effective, the poll asked respondents whether they agree or disagree with three anonymous statements.

• “The Epstein files are a Democrat hoax perpetrated by radical left lunatics in order to deflect from the great success of the Republican Party”: 19% agree, 61% disagree

• “The Epstein files are pretty boring stuff. I don’t understand why it keeps going”: 19% agree, 61% disagree

• “Releasing the Epstein files is not only the right thing to do for the victims but it’s also the right thing to do for the country. Americans deserve transparency”: 80% agree, 6% disagree

The first two quotes (with 19% agreement) come from Trump; the last quote (with 80% agreement) comes from Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a leading Republican advocate for releasing the Epstein files.

Last week, Greene said she was resigning from Congress after Trump called her a traitor and vowed to endorse her opponent in next year’s election. Yet even Republicans are twice as likely to agree with Greene’s statement that releasing the files is the “right thing to do” (75%) than with Trump’s statement calling the files a “Democrat hoax” (37%).

Different expectations about what the Epstein files might reveal

To recap, Americans want the Epstein files released in full. They think Trump has so far underdelivered on his promise to do just that. Some — mostly Republicans — give him credit for changing course last week. But few agree with his arguments for not releasing more of the files sooner.

Meanwhile, nearly three-quarters of Americans (74%) also think “the government has been hiding information about Epstein” — up 5 points from the 69% who said in July that the government was hiding information about Epstein’s “client list.”

That number largely explains why so many Americans across the political spectrum support the new law requiring the Justice Department to release its Epstein files. But it doesn’t mean Republicans and Democrats agree on what those files might reveal.

A full 82% of Democrats, for instance, think the government has been hiding information about Epstein “because it would implicate Trump.” A majority of independents (52%) agree.

In contrast, the vast majority of Republicans either think the government hasn’t been hiding information about Epstein (14%); say they’re unsure about that (26%); or think the government has been hiding information because it would “implicate Democrats” (47%).

Just 13% of Republicans think the Epstein files might implicate Trump. And among self-identified “MAGA Republicans,” support for Trump’s handling of the Epstein investigation (70%) is twice as high as it is among non-MAGA Republicans (35%) — suggesting that speculation about a potential MAGA “rebellion” is overstated.

It remains to be seen what, if anything, the files will reveal. According to the text of the bill itself, the “DOJ is permitted to withhold certain information such as the personal information of victims and materials that would jeopardize an active federal investigation.” Classified material can also be withheld. Those loopholes could limit what comes out in the days ahead.

Attorney General Pam Bondi has already cited concerns about identifying victims or disseminating images of child sexual abuse to explain why the Trump administration did not release more files earlier this year.

And earlier this month, Bondi followed orders from Trump and immediately opened an investigation into several Democrats who were mentioned in Epstein’s emails — even though the DOJ and FBI had previously declared that nothing in the Epstein files warranted further scrutiny.

When asked how much information will be released, 55% of Americans — including near-identical percentages of Democrats, Republicans and independents — predict the files will come out “in limited form with important material withheld or redacted.” Just 18% of Americans believe the Epstein files will be “released in full.”

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The Yahoo survey was conducted by YouGov using a nationally representative sample of 1,684 U.S. adults interviewed online from Nov. 21 to Nov. 24, 2025. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2024 election turnout and presidential vote, party identification and current voter registration status. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Party identification is weighted to the estimated distribution at the time of the election (31% Democratic, 32% Republican). Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of all U.S. adults. The margin of error is approximately 3%.