Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein socialized and appeared in photographs together during the 1990s, but accounts differ about when their relationship ended and what led to the break, according to the BBC and PolitiFact.
Competing accounts of the split
PolitiFact describes accounts dating the rupture to 2004, 2007 or another time. One account links it to a 2004 Palm Beach property auction: Trump outbid Epstein for Maison de l’Amitie, a 62,000-square-foot mansion, and paid $41.35 million, according to PolitiFact.
Other reporting places the break around October 2007, after an alleged incident involving a Mar-a-Lago member’s teenage daughter, PolitiFact reports. Trump has instead said Epstein took young women who worked at the club’s spa and that he told Epstein not to do it again. In July 2025, White House communications director Steven Cheung said Trump had expelled Epstein for being a “creep,” according to PolitiFact.
Trump spoke favorably of Epstein in a 2002 New York Magazine interview, calling him a “terrific guy,” PolitiFact reports. In 2019, Trump said he was not a fan of Epstein and had not spoken to him in 15 years. The BBC also reports that Trump said he cut ties after learning Epstein had tried to take Mar-a-Lago employees.
TMZ report relies on a former prisoner’s recollection
TMZ’s report draws on an account by William Mersey, a former fellow prisoner of Epstein. According to TMZ, Epstein told Mersey a story involving Trump, a private jet, a French woman and Atlantic City.
TMZ also reported that it sought comment from Clinton’s representatives but received no response.
A separate claim about what Trump knew
The BBC reported that a former Palm Beach police chief said Trump called him in July 2006 and told him that people already knew about Epstein’s misconduct. A Justice Department official told the BBC there was no known corroborating evidence that Trump contacted law enforcement about Epstein at that time.
What federal oversight can—and cannot—show
A separate review of prerelease transfers does not assess the truth of Mersey’s account, but it documents a limit in prison-system monitoring: the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that the Bureau of Prisons lacked readily available data to monitor whether eligible individuals were transferred on time.
