President Donald Trump’s friendship with financier and late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is well documented. But its rupture? Not so much. It ended in 2004. Or 2007. Or maybe some other time.
The timeline of the relationship’s end is hard to parse — and varies depending on when Trump and his inner circle were asked.
Before Trump’s presidency and Epstein’s conviction as a sex offender, the two socialized at evenings with Victoria’s Secret models, parties in Palm BeachFlorida, and trips between New York and Florida on Epstein’s private jet.
Trump told New York Magazine in 2002 that the pair also shared an affinity for beautiful women, and Trump called Epstein a “terrific guy.”
And then, a falling out.
Sign up for PolitiFact texts
Trump has since made multiple attempts to distance himself from Epstein.
In 2019, when Epstein was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges, Trump told reporters he was “not a fan of his, that I can tell you. I was not a fan of his.” He also said he hadn’t spoken to Epstein in 15 years, which would have been 2004.
Trump’s relationship with Epstein has garnered renewed scrutiny after the Trump administration reversed course on its pledge to release its collection of investigative evidence related to Epstein.
Here’s what we know about the three most widely cited explanations for the rupture.
Epstein “stole” Trump’s spa employees
On July 23, White House communications director Steven Cheung said on CNN that Trump kicked Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago for “being a creep.”
On July 28, Trump told reporters at his golf property in Turnberry, Scotland, the reason for the rift was that Epstein “stole” young women who worked for his Mar-a-Lago spa in Palm Beach.
Trump didn’t specify a timeline for when it happened, but called it “such old history.” He said, “For years I wouldn’t talk to Jeffrey Epstein.”
“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,” Trump said.
On July 29, Trump elaborated on his remarks from the day before, acknowledging that Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre was among spa staffers he said Epstein had poached from him.
“I think (Giuffre) worked at the spa,” Trump said aboard Air Force One. “He stole her.”
Giuffre died by suicide in April. In 2009, under the pseudonym “Jane Doe 102,” she said Epstein’s convicted former girlfriend and accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, recruited her while she was a minor working at Mar-a-Lago to be the late sex offender’s masseuse. Giuffre’s family responded to Trump’s July 29 comments, saying his latest account raises questions about the president’s prior knowledge of Epstein’s criminal wrongdoing.
Giuffre spoke publicly in 2011 about her abuse, Axios reported.
Social Security records submitted to the court during Giuffre’s defamation case against Maxwell show that Giuffre was a locker room spa attendant at Mar-a-Lago in summer 2000, two years before Trump called Epstein a “terrific guy.” The precise dates and duration of her employment at Mar-a-Lago remained unclear when the lawsuit settled in 2017, ABC News reported.
When PolitiFact asked the White House for clarification about when and why Trump banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago, Cheung said in an email, “taking employees is most definitely creepy.”
October 2007: Trump barred Epstein from Mar-a-Lago for his behavior toward a teenager
Some news reports say the pair’s falling out happened in late 2007.
Trump barred Epstein from Mar-a-Lago after Epstein behaved inappropriately toward a club member’s teenage daughter, according to journalists from the Miami Herald and Wall Street Journal. The reporters included some information about Trump’s links to Epstein in their 2020 book“The Grifter’s Club: Trump, Mar-a-Lago, and the Selling of the Presidency.”
A Mar-a-Lago member told the journalists that Trump had “kicked Epstein out after Epstein harassed the daughter of a member,” Sarah Blaskey of the Miami Herald reported. “The way this person described it, such an act could irreparably harm the Trump brand, leaving Donald no choice but to remove Epstein.”
The incident happened around October 2007, when Mar-a-Lago’s registry listed Epstein’s account as “closed,” the Miami Herald reported.
That’s about eight months before Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida to state counts of solicitation of prostitution and solicitation of prostitution from someone under 18 years old, and about one year after a Florida grand jury indicted Epstein on a single count of soliciting prostitution.
The New York Times reported this month that Trump told some associates that this was the reason he distanced himself from Epstein. Lawyer Brad Edwards, who has represented Epstein’s victims, said Trump told him this story in 2009, the Times reported.
November 2004: Trump and Epstein sparred over an oceanfront mansion
In 2019, The Washington Post reported about a 2004 bidding war over a Palm Beach oceanfront mansion as driving a wedge between Trump and Epstein.
The dispute happened months before Palm Beach police began investigating allegations that Epstein was sexually abusing minors.
The mansion entered the market after previous owner and healthcare tycoon-turned-philanthropist Abraham Gosman declared bankruptcy, Palm Beach Daily News reported.
Bankruptcy court acquired the home — dubbed Maison de l’Amitie, or House of Friendship — and put it on the auction block. Trump outbid Epstein, securing the 62,000-square-foot mansion for $41.35 million.
Before the auction, the trustee in the case, Joseph Luzinski, described the showdown as “two very large Palm Beach egos going at it,” said The Washington Post’s report.
There is little public record of the two men interacting after that, The New York Times reported.
PolitiFact Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.
