Wednesday, July 16, 2025

Pimp My White House

 




WHAT EVERY ENTREPRENEUR FEELS...

https://x.com/GolfDigest/status/1945084133941649919 




ROBERTS HELPED TO KILL DEMOCRACY

 

A person in a black robe and a statue of liberty

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How John Roberts Created the Anti-constitutional Monster Devouring Washington

From ushering in Citizens United to granting presidents broad immunity, no one in the capital is more responsible for Donald Trump’s destructive second term than the Supreme Court’s chief justice.

 

By Cristian Farias

June 16, 2025

 Cartoon of a person holding a gavel and sitting in a chair with papers on fire

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Forgotten in the arc of John Roberts’s nearly two decades as chief justice of the United States is his role, behind the scenes, to herald the result in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. No, he didn’t write the ruling that ushered in our current era of corporations and billionaires buying the presidency of the United States and other offices. But he can be credited with moving the chess pieces that made that sweeping landmark, authored by Justice Anthony Kennedy, possible.

One version of the story finds Roberts so spooked by an unpublished dissenting opinion by outgoing justice David Souter that the chief moved heaven and earth so that that document would never see the light of day. In it, Souter, a Republican and a big defender of campaign finance laws, called out Roberts for twisting the Supreme Court’s own internal rules to arrive at a far-reaching outcome in an otherwise small-bore dispute—in this case, a decree that the First Amendment places no limits on so-called “independent” corporate and union expenditures in our elections.

That’s not the legal question the Supreme Court had been asked to decide. And so other versions of this palace intrigue find Souter pleading with Roberts, and the rest of the court, to not overrule prior precedents curbing the influence of money in politics—and to rehear the case so that those precedents could get a second look and a fresh round of briefing and argument. Souter got his parting gift: On the final day before the Supreme Court broke for its summer break in June 2009, Roberts announced that the case would be reargued at a later hearing. Immediately thereafter, as his last order of business that day, the chief also announced “with sadness that this is the last session in which our friend and colleague, Justice David Souter, will be on the bench with us.” Problem solved. By the next January, Citizens United would become the law of the land.

“One element Roberts didn’t foresee was that Trump wouldn’t be the only one with pitchforks out against judges.”

This is but one data point for how Roberts, more than any other politician in the United States, has set the stage for Donald Trump’s disruptive second presidency—one far more destructive than the first, and yet distinct in kind from any other in modern history in that the president truly feels unbound. And in advancing an extreme vision of presidential authority, he’s no longer ruling over Washington and the nation as a lone head of state. Instead, the executive power, which Article II of the Constitution vests in one president of the United States, has been freely shared with billionaire and mega-millionaire ruling partners, Elon Musk chief among them.

Trump’s Cabinet, the wealthiest in history, at least holds legitimacy in that its members, like Linda McMahon and Howard Lutnick, were approved by the Senate, as the founding document instructs. Not so Musk. The Tesla and SpaceX chief, who donated a quarter-billion dollars to Trump’s reelection effort and over time has received tens of billions in government contracts from a multitude of agencies, operated in a constitutional vacuum, largely unconstrained by law or rules of ethics. As the leader of the inaptly named Department of Government Efficiency, which is neither a congressionally approved department nor efficient by established metrics, Musk—who recently split with the president—was allowed to wield a breathtaking level of authority over the executive departments and other agencies he’s beholden to, above and beyond that of the Cabinet itself.

Much of this unchecked lawlessness is water under the bridge by now, as judges, save some exceptions, have been too slow to stop the bleeding or police abuses, whether that be funding cuts Congress never approved or shocks to the federal workforce. Sensing early on how this unholy alliance of money and power flew in the face of rules Roberts and his court have erected for “officers of the United States,” as spelled out in the constitutional text, a group of Democratic attorneys general cried foul in federal court: “Although our constitutional system was designed to prevent the abuses of an 18th-century monarch, the instruments of unchecked power are no less dangerous in the hands of a 21st-century tech baron.”

One can only wonder what Roberts thinks of a duly elected chief executive and an unelected de facto prime minister leading the charge on mass firings across federal agencies, dismantling decades-old departments, and impounding appropriations that by definition are already the law. Roberts’s own branch of government is not exempt from DOGE’s intrusions; judges, law clerks, and court employees have all been put on high alert over the Trump administration’s documented encroachment even on day-to-day court operations.

Bottom of Form

These breaches of the separation of powers, both real and imagined, and the anti-constitutional monster spreading its tentacles across Washington, would’ve horrified the Founders. But that’s yet another consequence of unlimited wealth corrupting our politics. Democracy gives way to an oligarchy; that, in turn, may buy you a quasi-monarchy with few guardrails. Roberts and the other justices responsible for Citizens United may well believe that “independent expenditures do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption,” as they insisted at the time. The Trump-Musk reign of chaos has put that idea, fanciful then and now, to rest.

This corrupt bargain should haunt Roberts in other ways. During the presidential transition, as if anticipating the legal resistance to the incoming Trump administration, the chief saw the future when he dedicated his year-end report on the federal judiciary to the threats to their independence judges face day-to-day. The report, which doesn’t mention Trump by name, is nonetheless replete with not-so-veiled allusions to what the president and his supporters have visited upon judges since he took office—including threats of violence, intimidation, and disinformation about what individual court rulings mean or require. “These dangerous suggestions, however sporadic,” he wrote, “must be soundly rejected.”

Defiance, which has been a theme of the past six months, hasn’t abated. And that’s because one element Roberts didn’t foresee was that Trump wouldn’t be the only one with pitchforks out against judges. Musk, other administration officials, and far-right figures who have grown in influence on X and in the president’s circle have also joined this high-tech lynching, to borrow from Clarence Thomas. When an incensed Stephen Miller grossly misrepresented a Supreme Court ruling that urged the Trump administration to “facilitate” the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who had been unlawfully sent back to a prison in his native El Salvador, that only set the stage for more defiance by the White House.

In that case, as in other politically charged cases, Trump has been on the losing side in the courts. And the more he loses, the fiercer his and his supporters’ attacks on judges get. Indeed, a Reuters investigation in May found that John J. McConnell Jr. and James Boasberg, chief judges of their respective federal districts in Rhode Island and the District of Columbia, are top of the list among federal judges “whose families have faced threats of violence or harassment after they ruled against the new Trump administration.”

Roberts has tried to turn down the heat to little effect. “For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” Roberts wrote in a statement in March as Boasberg phobia reached a fever pitch. “The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.” The attacks didn’t relent. At a portrait unveiling in May for John D. Bates, a George W. Bush appointee and yet another veteran judge MAGA has viciously targeted for ruling against Trump, Roberts could be seen sitting next to Boasberg and other members of the judiciary in Washington—lending his presence and offering pleasantries in a roomful of judges at a moment many of them feel under siege.

As it happens, many of these same judges, collectively, presided over more than 1,000 prosecutions related to the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol. Then, as now, they’ve had to contend with an emboldened right-wing fever swamp, led by the president of the United States, that casts the rioters as political prisoners. The nation has Roberts to thank, in part, for this attempt to rewrite the history of the assault on our democracy: The chief led the way not only in granting Trump broad immunity over his actions and inactions on that day; he also shielded him from the insurrection clause of the 14th Amendment by blocking a bid by Colorado voters to bar him from the ballot. Had Roberts not maneuvered to defang that centerpiece of the post–Civil War amendments in this latter case, Trump might have been ousted from public life for good.

In the face of all this aiding and abetting, Roberts’s gestures and public comments in defense of judges come across as woefully insufficient. Worse, they mask his hand in paving the way for Trump’s worst excesses in just about every area of law and policy that matters to his administration.

Fresh on the public’s mind is the Supreme Court’s indefensible immunity decision, which effectively shut down a criminal trial accusing Trump of masterminding his disruption of the transfer of power. Roberts’s florid language in that ruling makes it plain that he believes the president deserves special treatment as the head of one branch of government, beyond the reach of the casual cruelty that everyone else faces in the criminal system.

Yet the longer-term import of Trump v. United States, as longtime scholars of executive power have observed, may be how the Trump administration is embracing it today. In Trump’s hands, the ruling isn’t just a shield from prosecution; it’s a weapon to decimate the federal workforce, to dismantle agencies Republicans and business interests have long disliked, and to fire independent watchdogs and regulators Congress has seen fit to protect from White House interference.

Indeed, the idea that Article II of the Constitution gives the president authority over every corner of the executive branch has long been a Roberts hobbyhorse, and the Trump administration is riding it everywhere it goes. When Trump unlawfully fired National Labor Relations Board member Gwynne Wilcox, the first time in the history of the labor board that had happened, the Justice Department relied on the immunity decision and others by Roberts to justify the dismissal. The president’s firing authority is “untouchable by Congress,” D. John Sauer, the solicitor general, told the Supreme Court in a legal brief. And so the chief went right along and, acting on his own, quickly allowed Wilcox’s firing to proceed. More than a month later, without bothering to hear oral arguments, his majority ignored nearly a century of precedent and gave Trump complete control over the NLRB’s leadership. “Today’s order,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote in dissent, “favors the president over our precedent.”

Carried to its logical end, Roberts’s jurisprudence bolstering an all-powerful and “energetic” president to do as he pleases spares no one: not the beloved Librarian of Congress (fired), not the transformative Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (fighting for its life), and certainly not the unlawfully renditioned migrants disappeared to a notorious El Salvador prison (still disappeared). In all these instances, the Trump administration can point to a constitutional ruling by Roberts for justification. Even the Trump-led purge of a government that is diverse, equitable, and inclusive, or part of its all-out war against Harvard University, can be traced back to Roberts’s blinkered thinking on race: “Eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it.”

Trump’s Washington is Roberts’s Washington. And the greatest feat of the Supreme Court that bears their names may yet be the wholesale destruction of government as we know it. In one executive order that garnered little attention, Trump directed his agencies on a “review-and-repeal” rampage to get rid of rules of governance that have long been on the books. The source for this directive? Ten cherry-picked decisions, all but one of them issued by Roberts’s majority or supermajority—covering everything from affirmative action policies to environmental law to religion in public life—that the administration thinks should carry the day. It’s too early to tell where this slash-and-burn campaign will end up. But if nearly 20 years of Roberts have taught us anything, it is that once he rules, the nation is left to figure out how to fix what he has broken. If it can be fixed at all.

 A person in a black robe

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Tuesday, July 15, 2025

NEW INC. MAGAZINE COLUMN FROM HOWARD TULLMAN

 

The 1 Crucial Innovation Lesson Every Business Owner Should Learn From eBay

The company I first encountered as a Pez dispenser trading post serves as a fascinating case study for what businesses need to do to retain users.   

EXPERT OPINION BY HOWARD TULLMAN, GENERAL MANAGING PARTNER, G2T3V AND CHICAGO HIGH TECH INVESTORS @HOWARDTULLMAN1

Jul 15, 2025

 

Having collected Pez dispensers since I was a kid and having an embarrassingly large collection at the age of 50 (which my daughters and granddaughters had no interest in), I was excited to learn in 1995 about what came to be called eBay—an online auction platform where you could buy, sell, and swap Pez dispensers relatively securely with total strangers from anywhere in the country. I became one of its earliest and most enthusiastic participants, bought and sold plenty of Pez, and made some new friends along the way. I also had dozens of classic lunchboxes, but that’s another story.  

The eBay founders thought they were building a marketplace for their friends and family. What they also created was an amazing discovery tool whereby passionate collectors could find similar souls who were just as crazy about these little plastic devices (and zillions of other collectibles) as they were. Entrepreneurs are constantly trying to develop new businesses and to create, exploit, and sustain demand and desires for their products and services. The beauty of dealing with collectors of any kind is that there’s already a built-in passion for the objects which the exchange experience merely needs to facilitate, channel, and monetize. It’s always easier to ride the horse in the direction it’s already headed.

Most people know some version of the eBay origin story—founded by Pierre Omidyar as a side project to help his girlfriend trade Pez dispensers online—and everyone knows that it grew rapidly from an auction site into a global e-commerce marketplace because it tapped into an underserved analog population and pulled those folks into the digital age. The speed and scale of the immediate nationwide adoption was amazing. 

What far fewer people appreciate is that eBay is yesterday’s news—cluttered, dated, and slow. It’s afflicted with the same disease as one of Yogi Berra’s favorite restaurants: It’s “so crowded that nobody goes there.” In an age where time is everything and patience is scarce, eBay looks, operates, and feels like molasses. It turns out that trying to be all things to everybody, fulfilling at best by FedEx, and making its connections to its users a mile wide and an inch deep might have been a great formula for volume and growth metrics, but over time, it made the site cumbersome and unfocused. 

These days, everyone wants just what they’re looking for, right when they want it, and instantly deliverable. EBay opted to go wide instead of deep and never really owned its customers in a world where alternatives were only a click away. Without constant change, innovation, and site improvements, eBay was never going to build lasting connections, a committed community, or loyal long-term users.   

EBay opened the digital marketplace but didn’t keep pace with the nature and needs of the new breed of collectors—especially passionate sports fans who were searching for community and interactivity as avidly as they were for commerce, and just as interested in buying something scarce and brand new as they were in owning decades-old hats, helmets, jerseys, shoes, and uniforms. It turns out that nostalgia is totally pliable—collectors can long for products created in their youth just as fervently as for goods unpacked and shipped yesterday.   

These newbies weren’t the hermits, housewives, cat ladies, and hoarders of old. They were millions of solitary kids, DIY techies, and fanatical sports fans (often all three rolled into one) who were looking to be a part of something that played to their passions, connected them to their peers, and encouraged them to engage and participate. Not surprisingly, the opportunity to create new venues and marketplaces to serve today’s hordes of hyped-up young collectors and dramatically speed up and streamline the buy-sell process was far too good a prospect to be overlooked for long. 

First eBay, then e-sports

An early instance of the demand for new experiences was the explosion of e-sports as a spectator event. Although I never understood why watching others play a video game could be a contagious and addictive experience, it’s clear that the next several generations don’t agree. Starting in 2017, we saw whole stadiums like the Bird’s Nest in China or the Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn converted into viewing venues where players sat on a stage in front of computers while the gameplay was projected on huge video screens throughout the entire space. Fans bought tickets, merchandise, and gaming equipment, while millions of additional fans watched the competitions at home online through Twitch or YouTube. These players and viewers were ripe for the digitization and gamification of collecting and online retail.  

EBay created static stores, but not stirring streams; illustrative images, but not live videos; and collector interest, but not real-time excitement and interactivity. Text-based auctions simply made no sense for the Twitch generation. The need for speed, sound, and action was clear, so into the void stepped Fanatics Live, a dedicated, live-streamed collectibles and trading card platform which moved online retail to the next level and made it a gamified, community-based, compelling experience. In some ways, Fanatics Live is just the newest instance of the web’s ability to smash together context, connection, community, and commerce.  

Cameo was an early case of connecting fans and followers (especially in sports) with their favorite athletes, performers, and celebrities and monetizing the experience. Bemyfriends was a platform provider offering bands and other acts the ability to build, own, and control their own platforms, finances, and destiny by owning the IP and also directly connecting with their fans. 

And now, Fanatics Live will enable the most entrepreneurial fans and fanatics alike to build their own online mini businesses. The formula is simple—virtually no barriers to entry, modest production costs, all underlying technology provided by third-party platforms, immediate action and gratification, and a chance to make a decent living on their own as well. 

Fanatics Live reports that there are already mini-merchants like Stephanie from MamaBreaks and Joel from Soccercrds who are allegedly making six-figure incomes while working from home. This is one impressive side of their multi-channel marketplace. And to be very clear, the success of the overall Fanatics Live venture will have a lot to do with the performance, professionalism, integrity, and customer service provided by these micro-merchants.  

But the most critical metric—and the real path to the long-term success of this venture—is the degree, depth, and scale of the engagement of the participants. Connecting passionate peers to other peers thru real-time video events like card reveals and pack openings; enabling direct chats between and among buyers, sellers and traders; and facilitating swift and easy transactions create exceptional levels of cost-effective engagement.

On a global basis, Fanatics Live users spend more than an hour a day on the site, which is 25-30 percent longer than Instagram’s comparable numbers. More than 70 percent of the Fanatics Live users take advantage of the chat feature, and this consistently leads to sales. On a monthly basis, loyal and committed users make an average of more than 15 transactions a month.  

Letting the fans drive the majority of the action and the transactions, relying on substantial amounts of user generated content, turning motivated users into platform advocates, and building positive word-of-mouth are all critical to inexpensive global expansion and to consistent user retention. But all of this activity and goodwill is predicated on a foundation of authenticity and trust which, like it or not, the team at Fanatics Live will need to assure, adjudicate, and otherwise backstop, just like Amazon regulates and manages its third-party vendors. It’s not an easy undertaking, and I’m not sure that the guys running the Fanatics Live shop understand that becoming referees is an inevitable part of the deal. 

They’re focused at the moment on generating buzz, growth, excitement, and millions of happy fans. But in the long run, to stay in business, it’s far more important to be trusted than to be loved—and much harder.

Monday, July 14, 2025

Trump’s Fans Forgive Him Everything. Why Not Epstein?

 

Michelle Goldberg

Trump’s Fans Forgive Him Everything. Why Not Epstein?

July 14, 2025, 7:01 p.m. ET

 

By Michelle Goldberg

Opinion Columnist

Over the last squalid decade, many of us have let go of the hope that Donald Trump could do or say anything to shake the faith of his ardent base. They’ve been largely unfazed by boasts of sexual assault and porn star payoffs, an attempted coup and obscenely self-enriching crypto schemes. They cheered wildly at his promises to build a wall paid for by Mexico, then shrugged when it didn’t happen. The BBC reported on a 39-year-old Iranian immigrant whose devotion to Trump endured even when she was put in ICE detention. “I will support him until the day I die,” she said from lockup. “He’s making America great again.”

So it’s been fascinating to watch a vocal part of Trump’s movement revolt over his administration’s handling of files from the case of Jeffrey Epstein, the sex-trafficking financier who died in jail in 2019 in what was ruled a suicide. Running for president, Trump promised to release the Epstein files, which some thought would contain evidence of murder. “Yet another good reason to vote for Trump,” Senator Mike Lee of Utah, a Republican, wrote on social media. “Americans deserve to know why Epstein didn’t kill himself.”

Some of the influencers who now staff Trump’s administration built their followings by spinning wild stories about the case, promising revelations that would lay their enemies low. Epstein’s client list “is going to rock the political world,” Dan Bongino, now deputy director of the F.B.I., said in September. Appearing on Fox News in February, Attorney General Pam Bondi was asked whether her department would release “a list of Jeffrey Epstein’s clients.” She responded, “It’s sitting on my desk right now to review.”

Now she says there was no such client list. Last week, the Justice Department and the F.B.I. released a memo saying that Epstein killed himself and no more information would be forthcoming: “It is the determination of the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation that no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted.” Trump has implored his followers to forget about Epstein, writing, in a petulant Truth Social post, that the files were “written by Obama, Crooked Hillary” and various other deep state foes. Let’s “not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about,” he wrote.

But he was wrong: Lots of people care. Trump’s followers responded to his attempt to wave Epstein away with uncharacteristic fury and disappointment. Bongino has reportedly threatened to resign over Bondi’s handling of the case. Epstein was a major subject at Turning Point USA’s Student Action Summit, a conservative conference that began on Friday. Speaking from the stage in Tampa, Fla., the comedian Dave Smith accused Trump of actively covering up “a giant child rapist ring.” The audience cheered and applauded.

Having nurtured conspiracy theories for his entire political career, Trump suddenly seems in danger of being consumed by one. In many ways it’s delicious to watch, but there’s also reason for anxiety, because for some in Trump’s movement, this setback is simply proof that they’re up against a conspiracy more powerful than they’d ever imagined. “What we just learned is that dealing with the Epstein Operation is above the President’s pay grade,” posted Bret Weinstein, an evolutionary biologist and podcaster. An important question, going forward, is who they decide is pulling the strings.

Epstein obsessives are right to be suspicious about the weird turns the case has taken. So much about it feels inexplicable, including the sweetheart plea deal Epstein got in 2008, and the fact that he was apparently able to kill himself despite being one of the most monitored inmates in the country. Even if it turns out that a review of the case doesn’t implicate anyone who hasn’t already been charged, it should be a scandal that Bondi misled the public about the existence of a client list.

But the administration lies all the time — that alone doesn’t explain why this issue has so tested the MAGA coalition. To understand why it’s such a crisis, you need to understand the crucial role that Epstein plays in the mythologies buttressing MAGA. The case is of equal interest to QAnon types, who see in Epstein’s crimes proof of their conviction that networks of elite pedophiles have hijacked America, and of right-wing critics of Israel, who are convinced that Epstein worked for the Mossad, the country’s spy service.

Trumpism has always been premised on the idea that he’s warring against dark, even satanic globalist forces, and within the movement there’s a fierce yearning for the cathartic moment when those forces will be exposed and vanquished. The Epstein files were supposed to show the world, once and for all, the scale of the evil system that Trump’s voters believe he is fighting. “Epstein is a key that picks the lock on so many things,” Steve Bannon said at the Turning Point conference.

The way Trumpists have made this case a cause célèbre can seem bizarre to outsiders. After all, Trump’s friendship with the sex-trafficking financier has been widely documented. Epstein’s best-known victim, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, said she was recruited at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s private club. And Trump has his own history of alleged creepiness around underage girls; several teenage contestants in one of his beauty pageants accused him of deliberately walking in on them when they were undressed. As Senator Jon Ossoff, Democrat of Georgia, said at a rally this weekend, “Did anyone really think the sexual predator president who used to party with Jeffrey Epstein was going to release the Epstein files?”

But I’ve always seen the fantasy of Trump as a warrior against sex trafficking as a way for his followers to manage their cognitive dissonance about his obvious personal degeneracy. To believe that they are on the side of light while championing a man of such low character, Trump’s acolytes have had to conjure an enemy of vast and titanic evil, and invent a version of Trump that never existed.

Among those on the right who believe there’s an Epstein coverup, few seem to be entertaining the idea that Trump is protecting himself. That, after all, would require a re-evaluation of his integrity and their judgment. But they still take for granted that Epstein was trafficking girls to powerful men and then blackmailing them, and that he was killed so he couldn’t talk. Now they have to figure out why Trump won’t give them the information they long for. The most logical explanation, said Tucker Carlson on his podcast last week, is “that intel services are at the very center of this story, U.S. and Israeli, and they’re being protected.”

This notion has become so widespread that Israel’s government tried to address it. “There is no evidence — none — that Epstein was acting on behalf of the State of Israel,” wrote the Israeli minister Amichai Chikli in an open letter addressed to Turning Point’s head, Charlie Kirk. But Chikli couldn’t resist using the case against his more centrist political enemies, saying he wants to understand Epstein’s connection to “former Israeli prime ministers Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert, who both appear in previously published Epstein-related documents.”

This will not, I suspect, put theories about Epstein as a Zionist operative to bed. Without them, Trump’s followers would have to admit they were duped, that MAGA has never been a Manichaean battle against sex criminals, and Trump glommed onto the Epstein story only to help him win an election.

The entanglement of the Epstein drama with American debates about the Jewish state portends some dark developments. I won’t pretend to know whether Epstein ever worked for the Israelis, though I can’t imagine Trump covering for them at any cost to himself. I’m worried, however, about people blaming Jews for the strange and unresolvable parts of his sordid story. Scroll through X, and you’ll see they already are.

It’s worth recalling the origin of the phrase “cognitive dissonance,” which was coined in the 1950s by Leon Festinger, an author of the book “When Prophecy Fails.” Festinger and his co-authors studied an apocalyptic U.F.O. cult, with an eye to what happened when the spaceship didn’t appear as predicted. Some members, disillusioned, left the group. Most, however, maintained or redoubled their commitment. The problem for Trump is that some of his followers need to choose between their commitment to him, and to the narrative that justified his rise.

 

WEAK AND PATHETIC - TRAITOR, RAPIST AND CONVICTED FELON

 






Sunday, July 13, 2025

Donny T. and Jeffrey E. - A Series of Unfortunate Events

 

Donny T. and Jeffrey E. - A Series of Unfortunate Events

The following is a detailed timeline of the relationship between Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein, including court documents, flight logs, little black books, masseuse lists, mugshots, and everything in between.

December 1985 - Donald Trump purchases Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida.

1990 - Jeffrey Epstein purchases 358 El Brillo Way, 1.4 miles away.

This is the property where allegations against Epstein began, when the stepmother of a young teenager called the police after the girl came home with $300 in cash, claiming to have given Epstein a massage.

1990s - Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump develop a relationship that is all friendship, no business, but inevitably based on wealth.

1992 - Donald Trump hosts an exclusive party at Mar-a-Lago with more than two-dozen women flown in to "provide entertainment." The only guest is Jeffrey Epstein, who wasn't a paying member of the club.

“I arranged to have some contestants fly in. At the very first party, I said, ‘Who’s coming tonight? I have 28 girls coming.’ It was him and Epstein. I said, ‘Donald, this is supposed to be a party with V.I.P.s. You’re telling me it’s you and Epstein?’” - George Houraney, American Dream Enterprise

Early 1990s - Donald Trump reaches under Kristin Anderson's skirt at a Manhattan nightspot, touching her vagina through her underwear.

1993 - Donald Trump gropes former Miss Switzerland, Beatrice Keul, in the Plaza Hotel in New York City. Jeffrey Epstein later invites her to visit Trump at Mar-a-Lago.

1993 - Donald Trump gropes former Sports Illustrated model, Stacy Williams, in the presence of Jeffrey Epstein.

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1993 - 1997 - Donald Trump's name appears seven times in the passenger logs of Epstein's private jet, according to House.gov.

1994 - Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein repeatedly rape a 13-year-old girl (pseudonym "Jane Doe" aka "Katie Johnson") at Epstein's NYC apartment. Read full court documents here.

Book Review: 'Not My Type,' by E. Jean Carroll - The New York Times
“E. Jean Carroll’s ‘Not My Type’ is both a memoir and a scrapbook of the two trials in which she accused President Trump of sexual assault and defamation.” - The New York Times

1995 - Donald Trump rapes E. Jean Carroll in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman in NYC. She later won a civil suit against him for $83.3 million.

1998 - Melania Knauss (b. “Melanija Knavs”) meets Donald Trump while working as a model in Manhattan.

"The first time he slept with her was on my plane." - Jeffrey Epstein

Jeffrey Epstein’s Gulfstream Boeing 727, dubbed the “Lolita Express”

October 28, 2002 - Donald Trump gives an interview for New York Magazine, claiming to be a longtime friend of Jeffrey Epstein

"I've known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy. 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." - Donald Trump, 2002


2004 - Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein fight over the coveted "Maison de l'Amitie" property in Palm Beach, each claiming that the other didn't have any money.

"It was something like Donald saying, 'You don’t want to do a deal with him, he doesn’t have the money,' while Epstein was saying, 'Donald is all talk. He doesn’t have the money.' They both really wanted it." - Joseph Luzinski, trustee

In the end Trump won, buying the property for $41.35 million. Four years later he'd sell it to Russian businessman Dmitry Rybolovlev for more than double.

November 2004
November 2004

October 20, 2005 - Palm Beach Police search Jeffrey Epstein’s residence after a report that he had sexually abused a minor. They seize several message pads from his kitchen that included two messages from Donald Trump. You can watch the walkthrough of Jeffrey Epstein’s house here.

2006 Mugshot

July 27, 2006 - Jeffrey Epstein is first arrested by Palm Beach Police Department on charges of soliciting a prostitute.

2007/'08 - Donald Trump claims falling out with Epstein, banning him from Mar-a-Lago because Epstein allegedly harassed another member's teenage daughter.

"I had a falling out with him. I haven't spoken to him in 15 years. I was not a fan of his, that I can tell you." - Donald Trump, 2019

What to know about Stormy Daniels and her connection to Trump's hush money  case - ABC News
Stormy Daniels - ABC News

October 26, 2016 - Donald Trump pays adult film star Stormy Daniels $130,000 in hush money.

Jeffrey Epstein’s Sex Offender Registry Photo, 2017

March 28, 2017 - Jeffrey Epstein poses for the New York State Sex Offender Registry

Donald and Melania Trump, Jeffrey Epstein, and Ghislaine Maxwell at Mar-a-Lago in 2000

August 2017 - Jeffrey Epstein sits down with journalist and author Michael Wolff for over 100 hours of interviews, in which Epstein claims that Trump was his "closest friend." In the interviews Epstein says Trump was "charming" and "always fun," a great salesman, but a "serial cheat" and loved to "fuck the wives of his best friends." He goes on to say that Trump had friends but "was at heart a friendless man incapable of kindness." He also claims Trump had scalp-reduction surgery for baldness. When asked how Epstein knew all this he said, "I was Donald's closest friend for 10 years." The audio has never been released.

"I was Donald's closest friend for 10 years." - Jeffrey Epstein

2019 Mugshot

July 8, 2019 - Jeffrey Epstein is arrested at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey on federal sex trafficking charges.

The New York Times

August 10, 2019 - Jeffrey Epstein kills himself in prison by hanging.

Jeffrey Epstein's address book surrounded by ripped pieces of paper with select names from the book on a red background
Business Insider

July 1, 2020 - Gawker publishes (2015) what is claimed to be Jeffrey Epstein's "Little Black Book," dated October 1, 1997 - 2004. Business Insider later publishes (2020) a searchable database with 1,749 names of public figures, celebrities, royalty and nobility, and statesmen. These are not necessarily people associated with criminal acts. The database includes Donald Trump.

April 2021 - Jeffrey Epstein’s 358 El Brillo Way mansion in Palm Beach is demolished.

February 21, 2025 - Attorney General Pam Bondi is interviewed on Fox News.

John Roberts: "The DOJ may be releasing the list of Jeffrey Epstein's clients? Will that really happen?"

Bondi: "It's sitting on my desk right now to review. That's been a directive by President Trump. I'm reviewing that."

February 27, 2025 - Attorney General Pam Bondi releases first phase of declassified Epstein files, including an evidence list, flight logs, a contact book, and masseuse list. Donald Trump is in the flight logs seven times, as well as the contact book. No second phase was ever released.

“Before you came into office, I requested the full and complete files related to Jeffrey Epstein. In response to this request, I received approximately 200 pages of documents, which consisted primarily of flight logs, Epstein's list of contacts, and a list of victims' names and phone numbers.” - Pam Bondi to Kash Patel

Prince Andrew accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre's 2009 settlement with  Jeffrey Epstein released | CNN
Prince Andrew, Virginia Giuffre, and Ghislaine Maxwell, 2001

April 25, 2025 - Virginia Giuffre, who was allegedly trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein to Prince Andrew, Duke of York, takes her life.

June 5, 2025 - Elon Musk tweets that Donald Trump is in the Epstein files.

July 6, 2025 - The DOJ and FBI conclude Jeffrey Epstein had no client list and died by suicide. This was further evidenced by jail security footage.

July 9, 2025 - Trump lashes out at a reporter for asking questions about Jeffrey Epstein, further distancing himself from the investigation.

Court documents:

Jeffrey Epstein v. the United States of America

Jane Doe v. Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey E. Epstein

E. Jean Carrol v. Donald J. Trump

The People of the State of New York v. Donald J. Trump

United States of America v. Ghislaine Maxwell

Ellie is an author, editor, and owner of Red Pencil Transcripts, and works with filmmakers, podcasts, and journalists all over the world. She lives with her family just outside of New York City.

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