Donald Trump had already suffered a significant setback last week after Republicans’ bruising losses in off-year elections suggested voters were turning against his policies and he was struggling to rally his base.
But House Democrats brought the US president to a low point of his second term on Wednesday when they released emails from the late child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein that included damaging messages about him.
The hit to Trump is particularly harmful because it threatens to amplify a rift within his own “Make America Great Again” movement that has been widening in recent weeks over issues ranging from his struggle to bring down inflation to his defence of the need for highly skilled foreign workers.