Relationship of Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein
, the 45th and 47th president of the United States, developed a social and professional relationship with financier and child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein that began in the late 1980s and continued into at least the early 2000s.
During Trump's prior careers as a businessman and media personality before entering politics in 2015, he and Epstein visited each other's real estate properties regularly. Trump and Epstein socialized frequently throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, including attending parties at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and Epstein's residence. Flight logs released during an associate's trial confirm that Trump flew on Epstein's private jet multiple times in the 1990s, and according to Epstein, Trump first had sex with his future wife Melania Knauss in his private jet. Trump had a falling out with Epstein around 2004 and ceased contact. After Epstein was said to have sexually harassed a teenage daughter of another Mar-a-Lago member in 2007, Trump banned him from the club. Epstein said, in a 2019 email attributed by NBC News and Axios to the event, that he had never been a member of the club.
Epstein was convicted of procuring a person under the age of 18 for prostitution in 2008. Since Epstein's 2019 arrest for sex trafficking of minors and his death in prison shortly thereafter, their former relationship has come under further scrutiny, particularly during and after Trump's re-election as president in 2024. Trump has denied any knowledge of Epstein's criminal activities and distanced himself from the deceased financier in the years before Epstein's arrest and death. Trump promoted unsubstantiated conspiracy theories about the circumstances and suggested Epstein was murdered. Media attention and public pressure has mounted in 2025, as Trump's administration has not released files relating to Epstein, despite Trump promising to do so during his 2024 presidential campaign.
On November 12, 2025, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released thousands of emails authored by Epstein and his associates. Epstein had claimed in a number of private email exchanges that he had damaging information on Trump. In a 2011 email to his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein said that Trump had spent hours at his house with Virginia Giuffre and that Trump was "the dog that didn't bark". Although Giuffre revealed that Epstein and Maxwell had recruited her from Mar-a-Lago into a sex trafficking ring, she did not accuse Trump himself of wrongdoing. Maxwell claimed in 2025 that Trump was not a "close friend" of Epstein, contradicting Epstein's previous statements, and that she never witnessed Trump behave inappropriately. No criminal wrongdoing has ever been established against Trump in connection with Epstein's crimes. A sexually suggestive birthday note, allegedly written by Trump to Epstein in 2003, included a crude drawing; Trump has denied its legitimacy.
The two chambers of the United States Congress passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act on November 18, 2025, forcing the Department of Justice to release eligible documents related to Epstein and his associates. Trump had opposed the bill for months, but expressed support for it on the day before Congress approved it, and then he signed it.
The White House stated that the release of these emails was only to create "fake news" against Trump and was actually a reaction from Democrats to the government shutdown. However, Democratic Representative Ro Khanna from California stated that the purpose of releasing the files was not to attack Trump. In June 2025, Trump associate Elon Musk also claimed that the reason for not releasing the Epstein files was because Trump's name was in the documents, a claim that the Department of Justice denied. On January 31, 2026, Trump said he'd sue writer Michael Wolff and "maybe the Epstein estate, I guess" for allegedly conspiring against Trump's political aspirations, again claiming that Epstein was "not a friend".
History
Since the 1970s, at least 28 women have accused Donald Trump of sexual misconduct, for acts that have included rape, kissing and groping without consent; looking under women's skirts; and walking in on naked teenage pageant contestants. Trump has denied all of the allegations. He has a history of insulting and belittling women when speaking to the media and on social media, and has made lewd comments about women, disparaged their physical appearance, and referred to them using derogatory epithets.Jeffrey Epstein cultivated an elite social circle and procured many women and children whom he and his associates sexually abused. In addition to his own sexual abuse of the victims, Epstein directed other persons to abuse the girls sexually. Epstein used paid employees to find and bring minor girls to him. Epstein worked in concert with others to obtain minors not only for his own sexual gratification, but also for the sexual gratification of others. His close associate Ghislaine Maxwell was later implicated as procuring or recruiting underage girls in addition to being, for an extended period, Epstein's chief girlfriend.
Early years (1980s–1992)
Trump said that his friendship with Epstein started in the late 1980s. The two men were neighbors and would visit each other's properties. On the July 16, 2025 episode of Erin Burnett Outfront, Jack O'Donnell, who served as COO of Trump Plaza and Casino from 1987 to 1990, claimed in an interview with CNN reporter Erin Burnett that, among other things, "In my mind, was his best friend, you know, the time I was there for four years." They would often visit the casino floor together, with O'Donnell also recounting one occasion where he reprimanded both Trump and Epstein when they brought in some girls who were under the New Jersey legal gambling age of 21. O'Donnell previously wrote about this incident in his 1991 book Trumped!, though Epstein's name would be omitted by the book's publisher.In 1990, Epstein bought a mansion two miles north of Mar-a-Lago, which Trump had purchased five years earlier. In 1992, Trump invited NBC to film a party he threw for himself and Epstein at Mar-a-Lago, where they joined various NFL cheerleaders. In the NBC video, Trump was filmed at a Mar-a-Lago party whispering in Epstein's ear, prompting Epstein to start laughing. NBC News revealed footage of the party in July 2019, showing Trump, Epstein and the cheerleaders. At one point during the video, Trump appears to tell Epstein: "Look at her, back there... She's hot."
Florida businessman George Houraney and Jill Harth, a long-term couple, ran a pin-up girl beauty competition called American Dream Calendar Girls. In December 1992, they sought out Trump as an investor and met with him in Manhattan. Trump openly expressed his sexual interest in Harth, allegedly groping her and telling Houraney "I'm going to go after her". Harth also recalled Trump saying: "I'd like to see the quality of the girls" in the competition. The following month, they reached a deal, and Trump invited them to Mar-a-Lago with a number of the models, where he allegedly groped Harth again. Houraney said he brought 28 people he described as "girls" to the property at Trump's request in order to host a private "calendar girl" event exclusively for Trump and Epstein. The American Dream competition was held at Trump Castle in Atlantic City in November 1993. Trump refused to sign a contract beforehand; afterward, the venue claimed it had lost money and that it would no longer host the event. Houraney sued Trump in 1995 over the business deal, claiming he'd been cheated out of a $250,000 fee as well as potential millions of dollars in future business. In 1997, Harth sued Trump for sexual misconduct. Later in 1997, Houraney settled with Trump; as part of their settlement, Harth dropped her lawsuit. Houraney and Harth then divorced, and Trump invited Houraney to his Mar-a-Lago Christmas party that year.
Trump-Maples wedding, Stacey Williams allegations (1993)
Model Stacey Williams said that, upon arriving at the Trump Tower in 1993, Trump and Epstein touched her while trading smiles. She told The Guardian in 2024 that "It became very clear then that he and Donald were really, really good friends and spent a lot of time together." She described the incident as a "twisted game" between Trump and Epstein.Epstein attended Trump's wedding to Marla Maples in the Plaza Hotel. Later that year, Epstein went to a Harley-Davidson Cafe with Trump and his children. There are photographs of both interactions.
"When we bet that Marla Maples was pregnant, I lost and sent him 10,000 dollars of baby food", Epstein wrote to a reporter in 2015. Maples gave birth to Tiffany Trump in October 1993. Epstein was photographed alongside Trump and Trump's 12-year-old daughter Ivanka at Manhattan's Harley Davidson cafe on October 19, 1993.
Plane flights, 'Tiffany Doe' and Maria Farmer allegations (1994–2000)
"Donald Trump traveled on Epstein's private jet... on at least eight flights between 1993 and 1996", an assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York wrote in January 2020. Flight logs released in 2021 showed seven flights that Trump took on the plane between 1993 and 1997. According to Epstein, Trump first had sex with Melania Knauss in his private jet.An anonymous affidavit by "Tiffany Doe" said that Epstein had paid her directly from 1991 to 2000 "to attract adolescent women" to parties at his mansion. In the summer of 1994, she lured a minor who expressed interest in modeling. She said in her affidavit: "Both Mr. Trump and Mr. Epstein were advised that she was 13 years old. I personally witnessed four sexual encounters" between Trump and the 13-year-old. In one of the alleged incidents, a 12-year-old girl was simultaneously victimized, and in another, Trump continued assaulting the 13-year-old "despite her pleas to stop." She said that Epstein likewise attempted to rape the 13-year-old on two occasions that she witnessed or learned of. "Tiffany Doe" said she personally witnessed both Trump and Epstein threaten to kill the 13-year-old if she were to tell anyone what had happened and that Trump further warned the victim that "he was capable of having her whole family killed." She signed the affidavit in 2016.
Maria Farmer, the first person to report Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell to law enforcement, encountered Trump late at night in Epstein's Manhattan office in 1995. Farmer was then in her mid-20s. She described Trump as leering at her in a way that felt threatening until Epstein entered the room and warned him off, saying: "No, no. She's not here for you." Trump and Epstein then left the room, and Farmer overheard Trump say he had assumed Farmer was a teenager.
In 1997, Trump inscribed a copy of his book Trump: The Art of the Comeback to Epstein, writing: "You are the greatest!" Epstein and Trump were photographed together at Mar-a-Lago and at a Victoria's Secret Angels event in New York in the same year, and there is video of Epstein and Trump chatting at a Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show in New York in 1999. In 2000, Trump and Melania were pictured alongside Epstein and Maxwell.
Trump's name was listed in Epstein's partially redacted "black book" of contacts. His name also appeared in a number of court documents related to Epstein that were released in 2024. Trump was not accused of any crime in any of the documents.