During a good part of the 1990s and early 2000s, Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein were two highly visible, wealthy 'bachelors' in their 40s, as well as men about town in Manhattan, Palm Beach, Florida and most anywhere the pair wanted to fly in their private jets. Donald Trump does appear in Epstein private aircraft manifests during those same years. The two had a close social relationship for a period of nearly 15 years, as well sourced and documented by The New York Times.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/19/us/politics/inside-trump-epstein-friendship.html
"I've known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy," said Donald Trump to New York magazine in 2002. "He's a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it - Jeffrey enjoys his social life."
At the time, Epstein was a wealthy tax and wealth fund advisor, primarily to Lex Wexner, the CEO and co-founder of L Brands, for several years the largest global manufacturer and retailer of women's clothing in the world, including ownership of The Limited, Abercrombie & Fitch, Bath & Body Works, Lane Bryant and Victoria's Secret. Wexner built then and still owns the largest home in the state of Ohio, the second largest home, adjacent to his back door, was owned by Jeffrey Epstein.
Epstein hosted lavish dinner parties at his incredible townhouse on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Dinner guests might include Bill Gates, Katie Couric, Bill Clinton or numerous politicians of that day, at the time, primarily Democrats. Trump was living large and having a very public affair, documented in the tabloids with aspiring actress and Georgia girl, Marla Maples, who later would his second wife.
Trump divorced his first wife Ivana Trump in 1992, and married Maples in 1993. He would divorce Maples in 1999, and began again dating models and aspiring actresses, marrying his current wife, then Melania Knaus in 2005. Trump would not become a truly national figure until after the premiere of his NBC television series, "The Apprentice" in 2004. Epstein was a well-known jet-setter and patron of the arts, and his first arrest for sex trafficking in Palm Beach County came in 2005.
Earlier in 2003, Trump and Epstein were in a bidding battle over a prominent beachfront home in Palm Beach. Trump already owned Mar-a-Lago, Epstein lived in a smaller but equally stunning compound two-miles away. But both wanted this prize property. Epstein thought he had won the silent auction for the parcel at $36-million. But Trump somehow got in a bid of $40-million after Epstein and won the auction. Epstein was furious. Shortly after, Trump revoked his membership to the Mar-a-Lago private club and began publicly referring to him as a 'creep.'
It is suspected that it was Trump himself who went to the Palm Beach Police, reporting that Epstein's mansion and compound were frequently visited by under-age girls, implying something illicit was going on. Ghislaine Maxwell, alternately Epstein's girlfriend, business partner and recruiter of young women, would recruit one of Epstein's since most visible victims (who committed suicide in April 2025), at her family home in Australia). Virginia Roberts Giuffre was then a 15-year-old, working in the Mar-a-Lago spa as an attendant, where her father also worked.
Maxwell recruited Giuffre to come to the Epstein mansion, where she was later asked to spend time with Prince Andrew of the United Kingdom. As the Palm Beach County Police and District Attorney's office began to dig dozens of under-age young women came forward with allegations of rape and sex trafficking of minors. Soon the Palm Beach County Police and D.A.’s office came to the Epstein compound with search warrants, conducting a raid and search for evidence. Apparently, Epstein knew they were coming, and several computers and potential other evidence had been removed in advance of the raid. Epstein was soon arrested and initially charged with sex trafficking.
By December of that year, Epstein recruited a legal defense dream team including Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, regional legal powerhouses Jack Goldberger and Roy Black as well as nationally known attorneys Kenneth Starr and Gerald Lefcourt. Palm Beach County child sex crimes prosecutor, Daliah Weiss (now a federal circuit court judge) bows out of the case, as Epstein hired her husband's law firm. Weiss was known as among the toughest prosecutors in south Florida for child sex crimes. The FBI and feds take over the case that spring, and a federal grand jury indicts Epstein on only ONE felony charge of solicitation of prostitution, the equivalent of what a "John" propositioning and adult sex work might face.
