How Trump changed his tune on Epstein from 'interesting' to 'hoax'

• President Donald Trump's stance on releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files has shifted over time.
• Trump initially supported releasing the files during his 2024 campaign but later called the issue a "Democrat hoax."

President Donald Trump has been asked repeatedly about releasing the criminal files on Jeffrey Epstein, and his answer has changed over time.

Trump and Epstein were once friends, both wealthy, highly connected men with homes in Palm Beach, Florida. The two fell out of good graces sometime in the mid-2000s, before Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting minors for prostitution. Trump would go on to be elected president, but Epstein in 2019 was charged with sex trafficking of minors and was found dead in his New York jail cell weeks later. His death was ruled a suicide.

Conspiracies about Epstein's death have rolled on since then. People in Trump's orbit have called for the release of a supposed "client list," as some alleged an elitist cover-up. During his 2024 campaign, Trump was asked if he supported releasing the files and he agreed.

Attorney General Pam Bondi teased a "truckload" of documents in a Fox News interview in March and seemed eager to make them public. But reports surfaced that she told Trump in May his name was in the files. In July, the DOJ said no further disclosure was necessary.

It sparked a rare moment of discord among Republicans, some of whom led a petition to force a vote on releasing the files. Trump downplayed the controversy as a "Democrat hoax" until a stunning reversal. Now, the DOJ is facing a Dec. 19 deadline to release the files.

Here is a look back at how Trump has changed his tune over recent years:

When did Trump say he supported the release of the Epstein files?

During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump was asked on Fox News if he would declassify a number of things, including the 9/11 files, the JFK files, and the Epstein files. To the last item, he said, "yeah, I would," but appeared less supportive than the other definitive yeses.

"I don't know about Epstein so much as I do the others. Certainly about the way he died. It'd be interesting to find out what happened there, because that was a weird situation and the cameras didn't happen to be working, etc., etc," Trump said. "But yeah, I'd go a long way toward that one."

Why did Trump say he opposed releasing the files?

As MAGA backlash mounted in July, Trump defended Bondi.

"They’re all going after Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is doing a FANTASTIC JOB! We’re on one Team, MAGA, and I don’t like what’s happening. We have a PERFECT Administration, THE TALK OF THE WORLD, and 'selfish people' are trying to hurt it, all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein," Trump wrote in a July 12 Truth Social post.

He also said days later he didn't "understand why the Jeffrey Epstein case would be of interest to anybody," apparently downplaying the issue.

Later that summer, he called it a "Democrat hoax."

Months later, the government was on the verge of reopening after the longest shutdown in U.S. history. A House committee released emails from the Epstein estate in which Epstein wrote that Trump “knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop.” The same day, a bipartisan effort to force a vote on the Epstein Files Transparency Act garnered enough signatures.

"The Democrats are trying to bring up the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax again because they’ll do anything at all to deflect on how badly they’ve done on the Shutdown, and so many other subjects. Only a very bad, or stupid, Republican would fall into that trap," Trump wrote on Truth Social on Nov. 12. "There should be no deflections to Epstein or anything else."

Did Trump sign the Epstein bill?

Yes. On Nov. 19, he signed the bill.

In a surprising reversal, Trump posted on Truth Social on Nov. 16 Republicans should vote in favor of the bill "because we have nothing to hide." He was asked about the about-face the following day:

"We have nothing to do with Epstein, the Democrats do...no matter what we give it's never enough," Trump said. The reporter asked if he would sign the bill. "Sure I would. Let the Senate look at it, let anybody look at it, but don't talk about it too much, because honestly, I don't want to take it away from us. It's really a Democrat problem."

Contributing: George Petras, Jennifer Borresen, Zac Anderson, Francesca Chambers, USA TODAY

Kinsey Crowley is the Trump Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach her at [email protected]. Follow her onX (Twitter),Bluesky andTikTok.