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When did Donald Trump ban Jeffrey Epstein from Mar-a-Lago?
Executive summary
Reporting and books say Donald Trump banned Jeffrey Epstein from Mar-a-Lago in or around 2007 after incidents at the club; multiple outlets cite Mar-a-Lago records showing Epstein’s account “closed 10/07” and journalists say the ban followed Epstein’s inappropriate behavior toward a member’s teenage daughter or the poaching of spa staff [1] [2] [3]. Trump himself has given varying explanations in recent statements, saying Epstein was “taking people who worked for me” and that he threw Epstein out, but exact public confirmation of a single date or a contemporaneous Trump statement from 2007 is not available in the provided sources [4] [5] [6].
1. What the contemporaneous record cited by journalists shows
Journalists who examined Mar-a-Lago membership records report an account status listing “Account closed 10/07,” which researchers and co-authors of The Grifter’s Club interpret as the club closing Epstein’s account in October 2007 — the clearest documentary data point in reporting that ties the ban to late 2007 [1] [3]. This record is the basis for many news stories that place the ban in 2007 rather than earlier or later [2] [3].
2. Journalistic reconstructions: why Trump is said to have barred Epstein
Several news outlets and a book by Miami Herald journalists say the proximate cause was Epstein behaving inappropriately toward another member’s teenage daughter — an episode described in reporting as damaging to the club’s reputation and prompting Trump to remove Epstein [7] [2] [1]. The same authors and other pieces note competing explanations, including that Epstein was banned after repeatedly recruiting or “poaching” spa workers from Mar-a-Lago, including Virginia Giuffre, a narrative Trump has used in recent comments [5] [6].
3. What Trump has said — multiple versions
In 2025 interviews and press remarks, Trump has offered evolving explanations: he has said Epstein was “taking people who worked for me” and that he “threw him out” of Mar-a-Lago for poaching spa staff, and at other times aides characterized the ban as because Epstein was “a creep” [4] [5] [6]. Those 2025 remarks repeat the broad claim that Trump banned Epstein but do not supply a contemporaneous 2007 statement from Trump; they are retrospective justifications that align with some reporting but differ in emphasis from the “hit on a teenage girl” account [7] [5].
4. Conflicting versions and open questions
Reporting presents at least two principal explanations: (A) Epstein harassed or hit on a member’s underage daughter, prompting immediate removal (reported widely in 2020 book coverage and subsequent articles), and (B) Epstein repeatedly recruited Mar-a-Lago spa employees, which Trump has highlighted in 2025 remarks [2] [1] [5]. Available sources do not provide an authoritative contemporaneous Mar-a-Lago or Trump Organization narrative reconciling these accounts; they rely on membership records, interviews with club members, and later statements [3] [7].
5. The timeline relative to Epstein’s criminal cases
Sources note that the reported October 2007 account closure would have been months before Epstein’s 2008 Florida plea deal and more than two years after earlier grand jury activity; articles emphasize the ban’s timing but do not link it directly to formal criminal actions in a single-source timeline [2]. Journalists place the Mar-a-Lago ban in the broader arc of Epstein’s fall, but the precise sequence and causal relationship between club removal and law-enforcement milestones remain described, not conclusively proven, in the provided reporting [2].
6. How to weigh the evidence — and its limitations
The strongest documentary claim in these sources is the Mar-a-Lago account status showing closure in October 2007 [1] [3]. The reasons for the closure come from investigative reporting and participant recollections — credible but not identical — and from Trump’s later, shifting public explanations [2] [5] [6]. Available sources do not include a contemporaneous, signed Trump Organization statement from 2007 that lays out the reason and exact date; they also do not produce a single definitive eyewitness account that both pins the date and the motive beyond the journalistic reconstruction [3] [7].
7. Bottom line for the specific question “When did Trump ban Epstein from Mar‑a‑Lago?”
The best-evidenced date in current reporting is October 2007, based on club records showing Epstein’s account closed in 10/07; journalists and books attribute the ban to conduct at the club (harassment of a member’s teenage daughter or recruiting spa staff), while Trump’s later statements emphasize staff poaching [1] [2] [5]. If you seek a contemporaneous, definitive corporate or legal record spelling out both the exact date and single cause, available sources do not provide that level of direct documentation [3] [7].