President Donald Trump continues to face backlash from his MAGA supporters over his administration’s dealing with of the Jeffrey Epstein recordsdata.
The Justice Division and FBI mentioned in a quick memo {that a} evaluate discovered no Epstein “shopper listing” and confirmed the disgraced financier died by suicide in jail whereas awaiting trial on sex-trafficking expenses.
The president has tried to shift focus away from the case, urging Lawyer Normal Pam Bondi to launch “no matter she thinks is credible” earlier than occurring to say with out proof your entire factor was what he calls a “Democratic hoax.”
Some Republicans have fueled the Epstein intrigue and conspiracies surrounding the case for years, with Trump himself weighing in a number of occasions.
This is what Trump has mentioned about Epstein throughout his first time period, on the marketing campaign path and now as stress builds on him to launch the Epstein recordsdata.
President Donald Trump attends the inaugural Pennsylvania Vitality and Innovation Summit on the campus of Carnegie Mellon College in Pittsburgh, July 15, 2025.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP through Getty Photographs
2019: Trump distances himself from Epstein: ‘Not a fan’
After Epstein was arrested and charged with intercourse trafficking of minors in July 2019, Trump was requested about his 2002 feedback by which he known as Epstein “terrific” in a New York Journal story.
In response, Trump repeatedly mentioned he wasn’t a “fan” of Epstein.
“Properly, I knew him like all people in Palm Seashore knew him,” Trump informed reporters within the Oval Workplace. “I imply, individuals in Palm Seashore knew him. He was a fixture in Palm Seashore. I had a falling out with him a very long time in the past. I do not suppose I’ve spoken to him for 15 years. I wasn’t a fan. I used to be not, yeah, a very long time in the past, I might say possibly 15 years. I used to be not a fan of his, that I can inform you. I used to be not a fan of his.”
In August 2019, after Epstein’s demise, Trump retweeted a put up that alleged Invoice Clinton was linked to Epstein’s demise.
When requested about his retweet in an interview, Trump mentioned “what we’re saying is we would like an investigation. I need a full investigation, and that is what I completely am demanding. That is what our lawyer basic — our nice lawyer basic — is doing.” The lawyer basic on the time was Invoice Barr.
Pressed additional on if he actually believed the Clintons have been concerned, Trump did not shut it down.
“I don’t know,” he mentioned, however inspired additional questions. “So it’s a must to ask: Did Invoice Clinton go to the island? That is the query. Should you discover that out, you are going to know quite a bit,” Trump mentioned on the time.
Clinton has denied any data of Epstein’s crimes and has denied ever visiting Epstein’s personal island.
2020: Trump recommended Epstein could have been killed
In August 2020, throughout the thick of his reelection marketing campaign, Trump recommended Epstein could have been killed whereas in federal custody.
The feedback went in opposition to the findings of then-Lawyer Normal Barr and the New York Metropolis health worker who dominated the demise a suicide.
Throughout an interview with Axios reporter Jonathan Swan, Trump was requested about Ghislaine Maxwell, an affiliate of Epstein who on the time of the interview had simply been arrested. She is at the moment serving a 20-year sentence for conspiring with and aiding Epstein in his sexual abuse of underage ladies.
“Her boyfriend died in jail. And individuals are nonetheless attempting to determine how did it occur,” Trump mentioned. “Was it suicide? Was he killed? And I do want her effectively. I am not in search of something unhealthy for her.”
In August 2023, in an interview with Tucker Carlson, Trump was pressed additional on if he believed Epstein dedicated suicide or not.
“Do you suppose it is attainable that Epstein was killed?” Carlson requested.
“Oh, certain, it is attainable. I imply, I do not actually imagine — I feel he in all probability dedicated suicide,” Trump mentioned.
2024: Trump requested about Epstein on the marketing campaign path
In June 2024, Trump was requested if he would launch numerous recordsdata — together with the John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. assassination recordsdata and the Epstein recordsdata — throughout an interview with Fox Information.
“Would you declassify the Epstein recordsdata?” Fox Information’ Rachel Campos-Duffy requested. Trump responded, “Yeah, yeah, I’d.”
That clip was circulated extensively on-line, together with by the Trump Battle Room — the social media account of Trump’s marketing campaign operation. The account posted it to X with the caption: “President Trump says he’ll DECLASSIFY the 9/11 Recordsdata, JFK Recordsdata, and Epstein Recordsdata.”
However Trump’s full reply to the query wasn’t proven till it performed on Will Cain’s radio present.
Trump went on to say within the trade with Campos-Duffy: “I do not find out about Epstein a lot as I do the others. Definitely about the way in which he died. It would be attention-grabbing to seek out out what occurred there, as a result of that was a bizarre state of affairs and the cameras did not occur to be working, and so forth., and so forth. However yeah, I might go a great distance towards that one.”
On this Sept. 8, 2004, file picture, Jeffrey Epstein is proven in Cambridge, Mass.
Rick Friedman/Corbis through Getty Photographs, FILE
In September 2024, Trump made a extra agency pledge to launch Epstein recordsdata throughout a podcast with Lex Fridman.
Fridman, in dialog with Trump, mentioned “it is simply very unusual for lots of people that the listing of purchasers that went to the island has not been made public.”
“It’s extremely attention-grabbing, is not it? It in all probability will likely be, by the way in which, in all probability,” Trump mentioned.
“Should you’re in a position to, you may be –” Fridman began earlier than Trump jumped in.
“Yeah, I might actually check out it. Now, Kennedy’s attention-grabbing as a result of it is so a few years in the past,” Trump mentioned. “They do this for hazard too, as a result of it endangers sure individuals, et cetera, et cetera, so Kennedy could be very completely different from the Epstein factor however I might be inclined to do the Epstein. I might don’t have any drawback with it.”
2025: Trump tries to dismiss Epstein recordsdata after DOJ, FBI memo prompts GOP backlash
For the primary a number of months of his administration, speak of the Epstein recordsdata was largely left to Trump officers, together with Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino. In April, Trump mentioned he was unaware of when the recordsdata can be launched.
Then, after the DOJ and FBI launched their memo on July 7, Trump reacted to outrage from his MAGA base.
Trump tried to close down a query about Epstein throughout a Cupboard assembly the subsequent day, July 8, proper after the lethal flash flooding of the Guadalupe River.
“Are you continue to speaking about Jeffrey Epstein?” Trump shot again to a reporter. “This man’s been talked about for years. You are asking. We’ve Texas, we have now this. We’ve all the issues. And are individuals nonetheless speaking about this man, this creep? That’s unbelievable.”
Trump then turned to defend Bondi in a prolonged social media put up on July 12, by which he mentioned his administration and his supporters ought to prioritize their focus elsewhere.
“We’ve a PERFECT Administration, THE TALK OF THE WORLD, and ‘egocentric individuals’ try to harm it, throughout a man who by no means dies, Jeffrey Epstein,” Trump wrote within the put up.
President Donald Trump speaks to the media after arriving at Joint Base Andrews, July 15, 2025, in Joint Base Andrews, Md.
Evan Vucci/AP
The story, although, did not die down and Trump solely appeared to develop extra angered by the pushback from his supporters.
On July 15, Trump appeared to place the onus on Bondi for what comes subsequent, saying she ought to launch “no matter she thinks is credible” on Epstein. Later that day, Trump mentioned he did not perceive the curiosity in Epstein.
“It is fairly boring stuff. It is sordid, nevertheless it’s boring, and I do not perceive why it retains going,” Trump mentioned. He added, “I feel actually solely fairly unhealthy individuals, together with pretend information, need to preserve one thing like that going.”
The following day, on July 16, Trump took to social media baselessly blaming Democrats for the recordsdata and people who he known as “previous supporters” of his for the fixation on Epstein.
“Their new SCAM is what we’ll perpetually name the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have purchased into this “b——,” hook, line, and sinker,” Trump wrote on his personal conservative social media platform.
“Let these weaklings proceed ahead and do the Democrats work, do not even take into consideration speaking of our unimaginable and unprecedented success, as a result of I do not need their assist anymore!” Trump added.
Trump doubled down on that declare within the Oval Workplace, calling it a Democratic “hoax.” When requested by ABC Information Chief White Home Correspondent Mary Bruce if the lawyer basic informed him it was a hoax or what proof he’d seen of that, Trump replied:
“The lawyer basic, no. I do know it is a hoax. It is began by Democrats,” Trump insisted. He added “some silly” and “silly” Republicans had fallen for it.
ABC Information’ Will Steakin contributed to this report.
