More ...
'He's a lot of fun to be with': Trump and Epstein were close friends for 15 years (2025)
www.theguardian.com
... As Trump tries to claim he was not a fan' of Epstein, photos, videos and anecdotes paint a picture of their relationship ...
It was a friendship that spanned three different decades. To Donald Trump, Jeffrey Epstein was a "terrific guy". Epstein believed himself to be Trump's "closest friend", and praised the future president as "charming".
The relationship would eventually break down, the men falling out over a bidding war on a property in Florida. And after Epstein was convicted of child sex offences in 2008, Trump distanced himself from the financier, claiming he was "not a fan" and wondering, in recent days, why his supporters would "waste time and energy" on demanding that FBI and Department of Justice files on Epstein be released.
But photos, videos and anecdotes paint a picture of a close friendship, of two middle-aged men who repeatedly partied together both alone and with their partners, including with Melania Knauss, who would go on to become Trump's third wife.
"I've known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy," Trump told 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."
Trump's insight into Epstein's predilections would be proved true in macabre fashion, when Epstein was found guilty in 2008 of sexually abusing girls aged between 14 and 17 years old. When Epstein was charged with sex trafficking of minors, in 2019, Trump attempted to play down their relationship, insisting: "I knew him like everybody in Palm Beach knew him." Trump said the pair had fallen out years earlier, and claimed: "I was not a fan of his."
But during the 15 years that the men were friends, there were plenty of incidents that displayed Trump and Epstein's closeness.
The New York Times reported that ...
