New reports suggest Trump's split from his pedophile friend was opportunistic.
Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump pose together at Mar-a-Lago, Palm Beach, Florida, February 22, 1997.
(Davidoff Studios/Getty Images)
On Christmas Day, Donald Trump delivered the strangest Christmas message ever offered by a US president. Trump complained that he was unfairly associated with the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. published a long tirade on Truth Social, which began with, “Merry Christmas to everyone, including the many scoundrels who loved Jeffrey Epstein.” Trump went on to lament being accused of having ties to Epstein, saying he was “virtually the only one who dumped Epstein, and long before it was cool to do so.”
Trump's claim that he dumped Epstein is partly true, but obscures an important fact: he and Epstein were close friends from the 1980s until their split at some point in 2003. Epstein was banned from the spa at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in 2003, and the two men appeared to have a more final split in 2004. The exact circumstances of the split remain mysterious as Trump offered conflicting accountssometimes saying he was angry that Epstein had “stolen” an employee from Mar-a-Lago, and sometimes citing a competition between the two men for the property in 2004.
The nature of Epstein's relationship with Donald Trump has been clarified in a revealing statement. report published Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. The report makes clear that Mar-a-Lago played a critical role in Epstein's sexual predation, a fact that was well known to Trump's inner circle long before Epstein was charged with any crime. One reasonable conclusion from the report is that Epstein was protected by Mar-a-Lago's system of plausible deniability, which allowed him to use the resort to collect victims. Trump initiated a break with Epstein only after a formal complaint by a Mar-a-Lago employee made plausible deniability impossible.
According to Magazine:
Jeffrey Epstein wasn't just a frequent visitor to Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago club in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The club also sent spa employees—usually young women—to Epstein's nearby mansion for massages, manicures and other spa services, according to former Mar-a-Lago and Epstein employees.
The house calls continued for years even as spa employees warned each other about Epstein, who former Mar-a-Lago employees said was known among staff for acting sexually and exposing himself during meetings.
The spa provided house calls to members from time to time. Epstein was not a dues-paying member of the club, but Trump told employees to treat him like one, employees said. Epstein had a spa account where his companion Ghislaine Maxwell booked appointments on his behalf.
Based on this report, the question arises: What did Donald Trump know about Jeffrey Epstein's predations and when did he know about it? Trump was married to Marla Maples from 1993 to 1999. Magazine“warned her husband and others in the mid-1990s that something was wrong with Epstein.”
In 2000, Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's most important associate, recruited Mar-a-Lago employee Virginia Giuffre will work with Epstein. Giuffre was raped by Epstein, who also sold her to his friends.
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In 2002, Trump said New York magazine: “I've known Jeff for 15 years. He's a great guy. He's a lot of fun to be around. They even say he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are younger.” Next January Trump sent a birthday card for Epstein, full of sexual innuendo.
Soon after this, a crisis began in the relationship between Epstein and Trump. How Magazine Details, the arrangement at Mar-a-Lago ended “after an 18-year-old beautician returned to the club after a visit to Epstein's home and told managers that he had pressured her for sex, former employees said.” Magazine reported that former employees said the manager then faxed the allegations to Trump and urged him to ban Epstein, which Trump did.
While Trump and his supporters will argue that the fact that Trump banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago in 2003 exonerates the president, the facts of this case make Trump's guilt much more clear.
Trump had every reason to know before 2003 that Epstein was sexually abusing Mar-a-Lago employees, some of whom were under the age of consent. The beautician's 2003 letter created a problem for Trump: He no longer had the ability to plausibly deny Epstein's wrongdoing. Now there was a paper trail that could be used against Trump. His break with Epstein was entirely opportunistic. Trump may not face criminal liability in this situation. Of course, it will be difficult to prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. But when evaluating politicians, criminal guilt is not the only criterion that should be used. From any reasonable moral perspective, Trump's behavior was appalling. Mar-a-Lago was the key to Epstein's criminal enterprise. Trump's critics should not hesitate to highlight this fact.
