We all know Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein were best friends and “wingmen” for over 15 years. The President has been trying a little too hard to deny that fact lately — including suing the Wall Street Journal for $10 billion just for uncovering a note Trump wrote his pal once.
But even the biggest MAGA supporters know these two at least used to be friends. We mean, there are countless photos and videos of the pair partying, flight logs for the “Lolita Express”, stories from mutual friends and employees…
Devout Don
But Trump’s supporters have been convinced — until recently perhaps — that the future POTUS learned what Epstein was in the early 2000s and kicked him to the curb. After all, Devout Don would never engage in activities with young girls! He was so offended that he cast Jeff out of Mar-a-Lago like Lucifer from Heaven.
(He never called the police or told the press or tried to help any victims or anything, but hey, Devout Don was busy doing important business! What, is he going to stick his neck out for some little girls? What is he, a sucker?)
Anyway, that’s how the story has gone in Trumplandia for the past six years or so. You mention to his voters about Trump and Epstein being pals, and they’ll let you know NOT AFTER HE FOUND OUT! He got rid of that guy! No way, not our Trump! He never would have allowed that!
And Trump has been happy to allow that version to be his shield. We haven’t been able to find anywhere he actually said that was why. In fact, before now all we could find was him saying it didn’t matter why and leaving it at that. But he absolutely let his supporters believe it. However, now that he’s actually being pressed with questions about his old pal Jeff, the answers aren’t lining up with the fantasy version of Donald in MAGA’s heads…
Trump’s New Answer
On Monday Trump once again tried to distance himself from Epstein, making explicitly clear that he “never had the privilege” of going to Epstein’s island — though he was invited. That doesn’t sound as pristinely principled as he was going for, huh??
Related: Trump Was Accused Of Tying 13-Year-Old Girl To Bed & Raping Her At Epstein’s Apartment
What’s worse is that he gave a version of his falling out with Epstein that we’ve never even heard before! When asked directly about why he ended his friendship with the financier on Monday, Trump said somewhat cryptically to reporters:
“That’s such old history. Very easy to explain, but I don’t want to waste your time by explaining it.”
Seriously?! This is a layup for Trump to let himself off the hook with his longtime followers who aren’t satisfied with his handling of the Epstein files. But instead it’s I have a good reason, but I’m not going to tell you?? Well, he did actually elaborate, which we guess we can thank his doddering old brain for. He said:
“For years I wouldn’t talk to Jeffrey Epstein. He did something that was inappropriate.”
Oh??? This isn’t going where his fans would have hoped. He explained it was a rude business move:
“He hired help and I said, ‘Don’t ever do that again.’ He stole people that worked for me. I said, ‘Don’t ever do that again.’ He did it again, and I threw him out of the place, persona non grata.”
He added, more confidently:
“I threw him out, and that was it. I’m glad I did, if you want to know the truth.”
Wow. He really thought this was a good answer. He thought he was really showing his virtue or something. By saying the guy pissed him off by poaching employees.
(Very curious what the employees did, btw. Just, you know, since Virginia Giuffre was infamously a Mar-a-Lago employee when Ghislaine Maxwell recruited her for Epstein’s sex trafficking ring. Is that poaching, technically?)
Hilarious that the reason he gave wasn’t that he was upset about the guy’s treatment of women, not that he — like Melinda Gates — got a sense this guy was a monster. Of course not, he loved the guy for well over a decade. Remember, he said just a couple years before their falling out:
“I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy, 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.”
Nope, definitely no problem with the man’s treatment of women… “and many of them are on the younger side.” Yeah.
the Other Version…
BTW, that isn’t even the reason reported on back in the day. Remember, Trump was famous back then. The Apprentice wasn’t on yet, but as a real estate mogul he was maybe the most famous — hell, he was in Home Alone 2. So when a real estate deal came between him and his good pal, it was a pretty well-known piece of gossip in Palm Beach!
Per The Palm Beach Post, in 2004 a big piece of property went on the block at a bankruptcy auction. It was an oceanfront mansion called the Maison de l’Amitie — which ironically translates to the House of Friendship. Trump knew Epstein was bidding, it was a property formerly owned by one of his clients. (Financial clients.) But to the surprise of the lawyers and judge there, Trump called in and started bidding! He knew Epstein wanted it and he bid anyway. And Trump won, scoring the manse for the low, low price of $41.35 million.
(Trump eventually sold the mansion to a Russian oligarch named Dmitry Rybolovlev for $95 million in 2008. Trump’s deals with Russian oligarchs always seemed to wildly favor him, something folks have been looking at sideways for the past decade. After all, say critics, it would be an easy way to launder money to him… But that’s a whole other controversy you can read about HERE.)
Anyway, the scuttlebutt at the time was that Epstein was furious at his pal for betraying him, outbidding him on a property Trump knew he wanted. And it was Epstein who ended the friendship — not the other way around.
Which of the two versions is true? Who knows. But we can pretty definitively rule out that Trump ever severed his friendship with Epstein over any moral qualms about women. Even those “on the younger side.”
[Image via DOJ/MEGA/WENN.]
