(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump continues to face backlash from his MAGA supporters over his administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
The Justice Department and FBI said in a brief memo that a review found no Epstein “client list” and confirmed the disgraced financier died by suicide in prison while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.
The president has tried to shift focus away from the case, urging Attorney General Pam Bondi to release “whatever she thinks is credible” before going on to claim without evidence the entire thing 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 several times.
Here’s what Trump has said about Epstein during his first term, on the campaign trail and now as pressure builds on him to release the Epstein files.
2019: Trump distances himself from Epstein: ‘Not a fan’
After Epstein was arrested and charged with sex trafficking of minors in July 2019, Trump was asked about his 2002 comments in which he called Epstein “terrific” in a New York Magazine story.
In response, Trump repeatedly said he wasn’t a “fan” of Epstein.
“Well, I knew him like everybody in Palm Beach knew him,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “I mean, people in Palm Beach knew him. He was a fixture in Palm Beach. I had a falling out with him a long time ago. I don’t think I’ve spoken to him for 15 years. I wasn’t a fan. I was not, yeah, a long time ago, I’d say maybe 15 years. I was not a fan of his, that I can tell you. I was not a fan of his.”
In August 2019, after Epstein’s death, Trump retweeted a post that alleged Bill Clinton was connected to Epstein’s death.
When asked about his retweet in an interview, Trump said “what we’re saying is we want an investigation. I want a full investigation, and that’s what I absolutely am demanding. That’s what our attorney general — our great attorney general — is doing.” The attorney general at the time was Bill Barr.
Pressed further on if he really believed the Clintons were involved, Trump didn’t shut it down.
“I have no idea,” he said, but encouraged further questions. “So you have to ask: Did Bill Clinton go to the island? That’s the question. If you find that out, you’re going to know a lot,” Trump said at the time.
Clinton has denied any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and has denied ever visiting Epstein’s private island.
2020: Trump suggested Epstein may have been killed
In August 2020, during the thick of his reelection campaign, Trump suggested Epstein may have been killed while in federal custody.
The comments went against the findings of then-Attorney General Barr and the New York City medical examiner who ruled the death a suicide.
During an interview with Axios reporter Jonathan Swan, Trump was asked about Ghislaine Maxwell, an associate of Epstein who at the time of the interview had just been arrested. She is currently serving a 20-year sentence for conspiring with and aiding Epstein in his sexual abuse of underage girls.
“Her boyfriend died in jail. And people are still trying to figure out how did it happen,” Trump said. “Was it suicide? Was he killed? And I do wish her well. I’m not looking for anything bad for her.”
In August 2023, in an interview with Tucker Carlson, Trump was pressed further on if he believed Epstein committed suicide or not.
“Do you think it’s possible that Epstein was killed?” Carlson asked.
“Oh, sure, it’s possible. I mean, I don’t really believe — I think he probably committed suicide,” Trump said.
2024: Trump asked about Epstein on the campaign trail
In June 2024, Trump was asked if he would release various files — including the John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. assassination files and the Epstein files — during an interview with Fox News.
“Would you declassify the Epstein files?” Fox News’ Rachel Campos-Duffy asked. Trump responded, “Yeah, yeah, I would.”
That clip was circulated widely online, including by the Trump War Room — the social media account of Trump’s campaign operation. The account posted it to X with the caption: “President Trump says he will DECLASSIFY the 9/11 Files, JFK Files, and Epstein Files.”
But Trump’s full answer to the question wasn’t shown until it played on Will Cain’s radio show.
Trump went on to say in the exchange with Campos-Duffy: “I don’t know about Epstein so much as I do the others. Certainly about the way he died. It’d be interesting to find out what happened there, because that was a weird situation and the cameras didn’t happen to be working, etc., etc. But yeah, I’d go a long way toward that one.”
In September 2024, Trump made a more firm pledge to release Epstein files during a podcast with Lex Fridman.
Fridman, in conversation with Trump, said “it’s just very strange for a lot of people that the list of clients that went to the island has not been made public.”
“It’s very interesting, isn’t it? It probably will be, by the way, probably,” Trump said.
“If you’re able to, you’ll be –” Fridman started before Trump jumped in.
“Yeah, I’d certainly take a look at it. Now, Kennedy’s interesting because it’s so many years ago,” Trump said. “They do that for danger too, because it endangers certain people, et cetera, et cetera, so Kennedy is very different from the Epstein thing but I’d be inclined to do the Epstein. I’d have no problem with it.”
2025: Trump tries to dismiss Epstein files after DOJ, FBI memo prompts GOP backlash
For the first several months of his administration, talk of the Epstein files was mostly left to Trump officials, including Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino. In April, Trump said he was unaware of when the files would be released.
Then, after the DOJ and FBI released their memo on July 7, Trump reacted to outrage from his MAGA base.
Trump tried to shut down a question about Epstein during a Cabinet meeting the next day, July 8, right after the deadly flash flooding of the Guadalupe River.
“Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?” Trump shot back to a reporter. “This guy’s been talked about for years. You’re asking. We have Texas, we have this. We have all of the things. And are people still talking about this guy, this creep? That is unbelievable.”
Trump then turned to defend Bondi in a lengthy social media post on July 12, in which he said his administration and his supporters should prioritize their focus elsewhere.
“We have a PERFECT Administration, THE TALK OF THE WORLD, and ‘selfish people’ are trying to hurt it, all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein,” Trump wrote in the post.
The story, though, didn’t die down and Trump only appeared to grow more angered by the pushback from his supporters.
On July 15, Trump appeared to put the onus on Bondi for what comes next, saying she should release “whatever she thinks is credible” on Epstein. Later that day, Trump said he didn’t understand the interest in Epstein.
“It’s pretty boring stuff. It’s sordid, but it’s boring, and I don’t understand why it keeps going,” Trump said. He added, “I think really only pretty bad people, including fake news, want to keep something like that going.”
The next day, on July 16, Trump took to social media baselessly blaming Democrats for the files and those who he called “past supporters” of his for the fixation on Epstein.
“Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this “b——,” hook, line, and sinker,” Trump wrote on his own conservative social media platform.
“Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work, don’t even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don’t want their support anymore!” Trump added.
Trump doubled down on that claim in the Oval Office, calling it a Democratic “hoax.” When asked by ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce if the attorney general told him it was a hoax or what evidence he’d seen of that, Trump replied:
“The attorney general, no. I know it’s a hoax. It’s started by Democrats,” Trump insisted. He added “some stupid” and “foolish” Republicans had fallen for it.
ABC News’ Will Steakin contributed to this report.
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