When did Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein first meet and how long did their association last?

1. How and when their paths first crossed

Contemporaneous reporting and later document reviews place the origin of Trump and Epstein’s social acquaintance in the late 1980s, with the BBC stating Epstein’s association with Trump appears to have started around that time . Visual evidence and club records show them together at Mar‑a‑Lago and at social events through the 1990s, including a widely published photograph from a 1997 Mar‑a‑Lago gathering . Public accounts also record Epstein moving in elite New York and Palm Beach circles that intersected with Trump’s business and social life ^[1].

2. What the record shows about the depth of their relationship

Contemporaneous descriptions and later investigations characterized Trump and Epstein as friends or acquaintances who socialized in the same elite networks; media timelines describe them as “close” friends through the 1990s and into the early 2000s . Documents in the Justice Department’s Epstein file releases contain references to Trump — many are news clippings and publicly available materials Epstein collected — but the newly released records do not contain clear direct communications between Epstein and Trump that demonstrate ongoing private coordination . Reporting indicates the men “bonded over their pursuit of young women,” a framing reported by The New York Times based on the content of materials in the files .

3. When and why the relationship broke off

Multiple outlets report that Trump’s relationship with Epstein had ruptured by about 2004, with PBS’s timeline explicitly stating the friendship ended in 2004 and reporting that Trump later said Epstein had “stolen” young women who worked at Mar‑a‑Lago . A Mar‑a‑Lago member told journalists Trump “kicked Epstein out after Epstein harassed the daughter of a member,” a version recounted in reporting cited by PBS and the Miami Herald . News organizations and timelines characterize the split as occurring in the early 2000s, though details and motives vary across sources .

4. Do records show continued contact after 2004?

Recent waves of document releases and media analysis have complicated a simple end-date narrative: justice-department releases and emails contain references to Trump in Epstein’s materials and show Epstein attempted to connect with Trump associates well after the early 2000s, while some allies in Trump’s circle appear in later Epstein records ^[1]. Journalistic accounts note that while the files do not produce evidence of criminal wrongdoing by Trump, they do reveal connections between Epstein and members of Trump’s broader orbit that persisted after Epstein’s 2008 conviction and into later years .

5. What can and cannot be concluded from the sources

The assembled reporting supports that Trump and Epstein first met in the late 1980s and were publicly seen together through the 1990s, and that their personal friendship had soured by roughly 2004 . The sources disagree on the exact nature and degree of ongoing contacts after that date: some files show Epstein referenced Trump or sought contacts in Trump’s circle, but investigators and the Justice Department disclosures published so far have not produced indisputable evidence in the public record that Trump engaged in or was criminally implicated in Epstein’s trafficking . Reporting agendas matter: outlets releasing timelines emphasize the length and intimacy of the pre‑2004 association , while recent document dumps have been used by multiple political actors to push narratives that either inflate continuing ties or emphasize lack of implicating evidence .