Every piece of information emerging from the recent Jeffrey Epstein file release has the potential to destroy someone’s reputation for the foreseeable future. Somehow, however, Donald Trump has used this period to convince Americans that his relationship with Epstein was not that substantial. According to a former close associate, that could not be further from the truth.
Jack O’Donnell — who worked as Trump’s president at his Atlantic City casino — shared details about Trump’s relationship with Epstein dating back to the 1980s in an interview with CNN. According to O’Donnell, there is no question that Trump and Epstein were best friends — and more disturbingly, that the two once confronted O’Donnell after he objected to them bringing minors onto the casino floor.
Jack O’Donnell, Trump’s former casino president:
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) February 2, 2026
Epstein was Trump’s best friend during those days… Donald and Jeffrey had come into the casino in the wee hours of Sunday morning, you know, two buddies, they had 3 women with them…the women that they brought down were underage… pic.twitter.com/Cef6HhyfpQ
O’Donnell said, “Epstein was Trump’s best friend during those days… Donald and Jeffrey had come into the casino in the wee hours of Sunday morning, you know, two buddies. They had three women with them… the women that they brought down were underage to be in the casino.”
This is not the first time O’Donnell has raised concerns about Trump’s conduct during the years he worked with him. In 1991, he published a book titled Trumped! The Inside Story of the Real Donald Trump – His Cunning Rise and Spectacular Fall. When the book was released, Trump claimed he had only met the man who ran his casino two or three times and that O’Donnell barely knew him.
Trump has repeatedly claimed that his relationship with Epstein was short-lived — a claim that even his ex-wife has reportedly contradicted. Epstein himself claimed in a 2017 recording that Trump had been his “closest friend” over the previous decade. O’Donnell’s account — that Trump was willingly socializing with Epstein alongside underage women — suggests that Trump had at least some awareness of the allegations that surrounded Epstein long before his death.
In the wake of the latest file release, Trump has maintained that he was never close to Epstein. He said, “Now that nothing came out about me, other than it was a conspiracy against me, literally, by Epstein and other people, I think it’s time now for the country to maybe get onto something else.”
For some, that response was suspicious. In a TikTok post reacting to Trump’s comments, one user wrote, “‘Nothing came out about me,’ so he thinks we’re going to ignore more than 3 million Epstein documents, with more than half of them containing his name?” Another user added, “He was allegedly mentioned 38,000 times in the files, which is more times than Harry Potter was mentioned in the Harry Potter books.”
Most people refuse to believe that Epstein operated alone — and it is a fair assessment. Trump, for instance, built his public persona on being quick to cut off anyone in his orbit who did not share his “values.” His catchphrase was famously, “You’re fired!” The president has repeatedly weighed in publicly on gossip involving figures like Ben Affleck and Robert Pattinson, among many other celebrities.
It is therefore difficult for many to accept that the person widely regarded as his closest friend was running a child trafficking ring without his knowledge. But that is precisely what the president is asking the public to believe.
