The Trump administration has made a 'massive, unforced error' says data analyst - here's how

A chief data analyst believes the Trump administration has made a "massive, unforced error" following the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation that has caused fallout among the MAGA base.

A memo from the Department of Justice and the FBI released this week found that the late disgraced financier and convicted sex offender took his own life, along with no evidence of a so-called Epstein “client list", despite all the conspiracy theories surrounding his death, and this rumoured list.

Donald Trump defended Attorney General Pam Bondi in a Truth Social post after she was criticised over how she's handled the Epstein investigation, as it's reported FBI deputy director Dan Bongino is considering resigning after a clash with Bondi on the matter and after the back and forth Axios reported he didn't turn up to work on Friday.

What a week, eh?

"What a massive unforced error by the Trump administration, Donald Trump would love this story to go away, but in fact interest is climbing higher and higher, to quote Jackie Wilson," said CNN's chief data analyst Harry Enten.

He then pointed to the fact that Google searches for Epstein have soared up 1,200 per cent this week compared to last week, and is currently the top topic searched with "Trump" and his presidency.

“So Donald Trump normally leans into stories in which there is controversy, like tariffs, for example. This is a story in which he’s trying to get away from, basically saying, ‘Why is anyone still interested in this story?’” Enten explained.

“But the bottom line is people are very interested in this story to historic degrees, at least this week.”

To put this search interest into wider context, Enten then compared this with other topics, noting that since Monday, Epstein has been Googled 2.5 times more than Grok (with the Elon Musk AI firm's recent chatbot antisemitism scandal) and 1.4 times more than tariffs.

The data analyst described how this is "one of the few stories in which both Steve Bannon and Elon Musk are going after Trump, at least the Trump administration, he's managed to bring together two parts of the fanbase that have normally been against each other."

Elsewhere, This new trend is 'troubling' for Trump - and stats say he should be worried, and, White House's 'Superman Trump' poster went down as well as you'd expect.

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