From ‘terrific guy’ to ‘creep’: Shocking things Trump said about Jeffrey Epstein; his decade-long flip-flop compiled

United States President Donald Trump, who's currently embroiled in a major (alleged) "cover-up" controversy over the Jeffrey Epstein files, has called the tranche of documents everyone wants to get their hands on "boring". On Tuesday (Jul 15) Trump called the case "sordid, but boring", while complaining, "I don't understand why it keeps going. I think, really, only pretty bad people, including 'fake news', want to keep something like that going." He also said that he didn't understand why the case would be of interest to anyone. However, over the years, the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein has clearly been of interest to Trump himself. The Republican leader has even made several notable statements about the convicted sex offender. Here's what Trump has said about Epstein over the years.

"Terrific Guy"

These words must come back to haunt Trump. In 2002, Trump, then a real estate mogul, called Epstein a "terrific guy" in a New York Magazine profile of Jeffrey Epstein. "I've known Jeff for 15 years," he told the magazine, adding, "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. No doubt about it - Jeffrey enjoys his social life."

"Not a fan"

In 2019, after assuming the White House as the President of the United States during his first term, Trump sought to distance himself from the disgraced financier, and downplayed their relations. When asked about Epstein, he claimed he knew him "like everybody in Palm Beach knew him" and claimed, "I was not a fan of his, that I can tell you". Apparently, the two had a falling out some 15 years ago. Confirming this, he added, "I did have a falling out a long time ago. The reason doesn’t make any difference, frankly. But I haven’t spoken to him in probably 15 years or more."

During the same interaction, Trump was also asked if he had any knowledge of Epstein's activities, if he had any "suspicions that he was molesting … underaged women." Refusing any knowledge, Trump insisted, "No, I had no idea. I haven’t spoken to him in many, many years." To back his statement, Trump even brought up an incident where he apparently threw Jeffrey Epstein out of a club: "You watched people yesterday saying that I threw him out of a club. I didn’t want anything to do with him. That was many, many years ago." Patting his own back, he added, "It shows you one thing: that I have good taste. OK? Now, other people, they went all over with him. They went to his island. They went all over the place."

Trump also claimed that he had never visited Epstein's infamous island, where he used to carry out his nefarious sex trafficking activities: "You watched people yesterday saying that I threw him out of a club. I didn’t want anything to do with him. That was many, many years ago. It shows you one thing: that I have good taste. OK? Now, other people, they went all over with him. They went to his island. They went all over the place." He insisted that "Jeffrey Epstein was not somebody that I respected. I threw him out. In fact, I think the great James Patterson, who is a member of Mar-a-Lago, made a statement yesterday that, many years ago, I threw him out".

However, documents unsealed around that time painted a different picture. They showed that Trump had, in fact, flown on Epstein's plane, infamously known as "Lolita Express". What's more, in explosive tapes recorded by author Michael Wolff, the disgraced financier Epstein had boasted of his closeness to Trump, calling himself the businessman-turned-politician's "closest friend for 10 years." In addition to this, Epstein also made some explicit remarks in which he claimed closeness to Melania Trump, boasting, “the first time he (Trump) slept with her (Melania) was on my plane”. He also shared Trump's alleged penchant for sleeping with his friends' wives.

"Creep"

Last week, during a cabinet meeting, Trump interjected into a reporter's question to Attorney General Pam Bondi about the Justice Department's memo on the convicted sex offender and exclaimed, "Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? This guy's been talked about for years". Calling Epstein a “creep”, he said, "You're asking … we have Texas (flash floods), we have this, we have all of the things, and are people still talking about this guy, this creep? That is unbelievable. I mean, I can't believe you’re asking a question on Epstein at a time like this, where we're having some of the greatest success and also tragedy with what happened in Texas. It just seems like a desecration".

The POTUS' journey from calling Epstein a "terrific guy" to labelling him a "creep" has been interesting, to say the least. With the storm inside the MAGA base nowhere near abating, Trump will, without a doubt, give us some very interesting gems on the case.