President Donald Trump continues to face a violent reaction from his Maga supporters about the management of his administration of the Jeffrey Epstein archives.
The Department of Justice and the FBI said in a brief memorandum that a review did not find Epstein a “list of clients” and confirmed that the dishonored financial died for suicide in prison while waiting for a trial for sexual trafficking charges.
The president has tried to keep the focus of the case, urging the attorney general Pam Bondi to free “whatever he thinks is credible” before claiming without evidence, everything was what he calls a “democratic deception.”
Some Republicans have fed the intrigue and conspiracies of Epstein that surround the case for years, and Trump himself weighs several times.
This is what Trump has said about Epstein during his first term, in the campaign and now as the pressure is based on him to release Epstein’s archives.
President Donald Trump attends the inaugural Energy and Innovation Summit of Pennsylvania at the Carnegie Mellon University campus in Pittsburgh, on July 15, 2025.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP through Getty Images
2019: Trump distance from Epstein: ‘It’s not a fan’
After Epstein was arrested and accused of sexual trafficking of minors in July 2019, Trump was asked about his 2002 comments in which he called Epstein “excellent” in a story of New York magazine.
In response, Trump repeatedly said he was not a “fanatic” of Epstein.
“Well, I knew him as everyone in Palm Beach knew him,” Trump told journalists at the Oval office. “I mean, people in Palm Beach knew him. It was a fixed element in Palm Beach. I had a fall with him a long time ago. I don’t think he talked to him for 15 years. He was not a fan.
In August 2019, after Epstein’s death, Trump retweeted a position that alleged Bill Clinton was connected to Epstein’s death.
When asked about his retweet in an interview, Trump said: “What we are saying is that we want an investigation. I want a complete investigation, and that is what I am demanding. That is what our Attorney General, our great attorney general, is doing.” The attorney general at that time was Bill Barr.
Pressing even more if he really believed that the Clinton were involved, Trump did not close it.
“I have no idea,” he said, but encouraged more questions. “Then you have to ask: Bill Clinton went to the island? That is the question. If you discover it, you will know a lot,” Trump said at that time.
Clinton has denied any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and has denied having visited Epstein’s private island.
2020: Trump suggested that Epstein could have been killed
In August 2020, during the bulk of his re -election campaign, Trump suggested that Epstein could have been killed while he is in federal custody.
The comments were against the findings of the then Aytordeado General Barr and the Forensic Doctor of New York City who ruled that death committed suicide.
During an interview with the Axios reporter Jonathan Swan, Trump was asked about Ghislaine Maxwell, an Epstein associate who at the time of the interview had just been arrested. He is currently serving a 20 -year judgment for conspiring and helping Epstein to his sexual abuse of minor girls.
“Her boyfriend died in jail. And people are still trying to discover how Trump said. “Was it suicide? Was he killed? And I wish her the best. I’m not looking for anything wrong for her.”
In August 2023, in an interview with Tucker Carlson, Trump was pressed whether he believed that Epstein was committed suicide or not.
“Do you think it is possible that Epstein has been killed?” Carlson asked.
“Oh, of course, it is possible. I mean, I really don’t think, I think he committed suicide,” Trump said.
2024: Trump asked about Epstein in the campaign
In June 2024, Trump was asked if he would launch several files, including the murder archives of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. and Epstein’s archives, during an interview with Fox News.
“Discover Epstein files?” Rachel Campos-Duffy of Fox News asked. Trump replied: “Yes, yes, I would.”
That clip was widely distributed online, even by Trump’s war room, the social networks account of the Trump campaign operation. The account was published in X with the title: “President Trump says he will declassify the September 11 files, the JFK files and the Epstein archives.”
But Trump’s complete answer to the question was not shown until he played in the Will Cain’s radio show.
Trump continued to say in the exchange with Campos-Duffy: “I don’t know about Epstein as much as others. Certainly about the way he died. It would be interesting to discover what happened there, because that was a strange situation and the cameras were not working, etc., etc. but it would be a long way to that.”
In this file photo of September 8, 2004, Jeffrey Epstein is shown in Cambridge, Mass.
Rick Friedman/Corbis through Getty Images, Archive
In September 2024, Trump made a firmer promise to launch Epstein files during a podcast with Lex Fridman.
Fridman, in a conversation with Trump, said: “It is very strange for many people that the list of customers who went to the island has not been made public.”
“It’s very interesting, right? It will probably be, by the way, probably,” Trump said.
“If you are able to be, you will be,” Fridman started before Trump entered.
“Yes, I would certainly take a look. Now, Kennedy is interesting because it is many years ago,” Trump said. “They also do it by danger, because it endangers certain people, etc., etc., so Kennedy is very different from Epstein’s, but I would be inclined to do the Epstein. I would have no problem with that.”
2025: Trump tries to say goodbye to Epstein’s archives after the Department of Justice, the FBI Memo causes a violent reaction of the Republican Party
During the first months of his administration, the conversation of Epstein’s archives was mainly left to Trump officials, including Bondi, FBI director Kash Patel and the FBI deputy director, Dan Bongino. In April, Trump said he did not know when the files would be released.
Then, after the Department of Justice and the FBI published their memorandum on July 7, Trump reacted to the outrage of his magician base.
Trump tried to close a question about Epstein during a cabinet meeting the next day, on July 8, just after the mortal flood of the Guadalupe River.
“Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?” Trump returned to a journalist. “This type has been discussed for years. You are asking. We have Texas, we have this. We have all things. And people keep talking about this type, this disgusting? That is incredible.”
Trump then turned to defend Bondi in a long publication on social networks on July 12, in which he said that his administration and supporters should prioritize their approach elsewhere.
“We have a perfect administration, the world’s talk and ‘selfish people’ are trying to hurt him, a type that never dies, Jeffrey Epstein,” Trump wrote in the publication.
President Donald Trump talks to the media after reaching the Andrews joint base on July 15, 2025, at the Andrews, MD.
EVAN VUCCI/AP
However, the story was not extinguished and Trump only seemed to become more angry at the rejection of his followers.
On July 15, Trump seemed to put responsibility in Bondi for what comes next, saying that he should launch “what he thinks is credible” in Epstein. Later that day, Trump said he did not understand interest in Epstein.
“It’s quite boring something. It’s sordid, but it’s boring, and I don’t understand why you keep going,” Trump said. He added: “I think that really just quite bad people, including false news, want to maintain something like that.”
The next day, to July 16, Trump turned to social networks blaming the Democrats for the archives and those whom he called “past supporters” of him for the fixation in Epstein.
“His new scam is what we will call Jeffrey Epstein’s deception, and my previous supporters have bought this” B —— “, Hook, Line and Funcker,” Trump wrote on his own conservative social media platform.
“Let these weak continue advancing and make the Democrats work, do not even think about talking about our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don’t want their support anymore!” Trump added.
Trump doubled that statement in the Oval office, describing it as democratic “deception.” When the Chief of the White House of ABC News asked Mary Bruce if the attorney general told him that it was a hoax or what evidence he had seen of that, Trump replied:
“The attorney general, no. I know it is a hoax. He is initiated by the Democrats,” Trump insisted. He added that the “stupid” and “dumb” Republicans had fallen in love with it.
ABC News’ Will Steakin contributed to this report.
