July 22nd 2019

By Jen Hayden

Daily Kos

NBC News has released archived footage of Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein at a Mar-a-Lago party. The room is filled with women, many of whom were reported to be cheerleaders for the 1992 Buffalo Bills team. Donald Trump claimed he was “never a fan” of Jeffrey Epstein, but the men, who were neighbors in both New York City and Palm Beach, Florida, sure seemed to spend time together and share a common interest: dating women significantly younger than them, or in Epstein’s case—preying on children.

The footage aired on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, (the full segment is available here) but below are two of the most cringeworthy clips, showing Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein standing around watching the women dance. Trump seems especially eager to get Epstein’s full attention. In the full NBC video, he can be seen rushing out to personally greet Epstein as he arrives at Mar-a-Lago, bringing him into the party. Trump points to one woman and appears to say, “Look at her. In the back … she’s hot.” He then gets closer to Epstein to say something that was not picked up by the microphone, but judging by Epstein’s reaction, it was more “locker room talk.”

In 2002, the New York magazine contacted Donald Trump to ask about Jeffrey Epstein and he not only noted what a “terrific guy” Epstein was, he helpfully offered the fact that Epstein likes “beautiful women as much as I do, many of them on the younger side.”

“I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy,” Trump booms from a speakerphone. “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.”

The footage above is some 10 years before Donald Trump gave that quote to the New Yorker. These two knew each other quite well. How often did they hang out together? Florida businessman George Houraney told the New York Times he arranged a 1992 “calendar girl” competition for Donald Trump and was shocked when only two guests arrived: Trump and Epstein.

“I arranged to have some contestants fly in,” Mr. Houraney recalled in an interview on Monday. “At the very first party, I said, ‘Who’s coming tonight? I have 28 girls coming.’ It was him and Epstein.”

Mr. Houraney, who had just partnered with Mr. Trump to host events at his casinos, said he was surprised. “I said, ‘Donald, this is supposed to be a party with V.I.P.s. You’re telling me it’s you and Epstein?’”

Four years after the video above, Donald Trump bought the Miss USA organization, which included the Miss USA, Miss Teen USA, and Miss Universe pageants. It’s rather amazing that nobody has asked the question yet—did Donald Trump invite Jeffrey Epstein to attend these pageants? Particularly the Miss Teen USA pageant? Did he introduce Epstein to any of the teen contestants or give him access to the teen girls? After all, Trump’s own words indicate he was well aware Epstein preferred women/girls “on the younger side.” Donald Trump himself also once bragged about how young he preferred his dates to be during a 2006 appearance on The Howard Stern Show.

In a 2006 interview, Stern asks Trump, "Do you think you could now be banging 24-year-olds?"

"Oh, absolutely," Trump says.

"Would you do it?," asks Stern.

"I'd have no problem," Trump said.

Stern then asked Trump if he has an age limit.

"No, I have no age — I mean, I have age limit. I don't want to be like Congressman Foley, with, you know, 12-year-olds."

(Side note: Congressman Foley left Congress in disgrace after it was revealed he was preying on teenaged boys working as congressional pages. The FBI investigated him, but ultimately he never faced charges.)

Five now adult women who competed in the 1997 Miss Teen USA detailed Trump’s completely inappropriate barging into the teen girl’s locker room to Buzzfeed in 2016.

“I remember putting on my dress really quick because I was like, ‘Oh my god, there’s a man in here,’” said Mariah Billado, the former Miss Vermont Teen USA.

Trump, she recalled, said something like, “Don’t worry, ladies, I’ve seen it all before.”

Three other women, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of getting engulfed in a media firestorm, also remembered Trump entering the dressing room while girls were changing. Two of them said the girls rushed to cover their bodies, with one calling it “shocking” and “creepy.” The third said she was clothed and introduced herself to Trump.

Indeed, during an appearance on The Howard Stern Show, Trump bragged of his lecherous, inappropriate behavior, saying it was his “obligation” to enter the locker room to inspect the contestants.

"Well, what you could also say is that, as the owner of the pageant, it's your obligation to do that," Trump said, before discussing how he got away with going backstage when the contestants were naked.

"Well, I'll tell you the funniest is that before a show, I'll go backstage and everyone's getting dressed, and everything else, and you know, no men are anywhere, and I'm allowed to go in because I'm the owner of the pageant and therefore I'm inspecting it," Trump said. "You know, I'm inspecting because I want to make sure that everything is good."

"You know, the dresses. 'Is everyone okay?' You know, they're standing there with no clothes. 'Is everybody okay?' And you see these incredible looking women, and so, I sort of get away with things like that. But no, I've been very good," he added.

Gross. For the record, NBC forced Trump to sell the pageants in 2015 after his racist comments about immigrants during a campaign publicity stunt.

Those pageants weren’t Trump’s only connection to a stream of young women. In 1999, he founded the Trump Model Management company and primarily worked with young, foreign women, who are alleged to have been working in the U.S. illegally. Mother Jones exposed the agency's illegal work:

Two other former Trump models—who requested anonymity to speak freely about their experiences, and who we are giving the pseudonyms Anna and Kate—said the agency never obtained work visas on their behalf, even as they performed modeling assignments in the United States. (They provided photographs from some of these jobs, and Mother Jones confirmed with the photographers or stylists that these shoots occurred in the United States.)

Each of the three former Trump models said she arrived in New York with dreams of making it big in one of the world’s most competitive fashion markets. But without work visas, they lived in constant fear of getting caught. “I was pretty on edge most of the time I was there,” Anna said of the three months in 2009 she spent in New York working for Trump’s agency.

“I was there illegally,” she said. “A sitting duck.”

Vulnerable young women far from home can be easy prey for the wrong kind of people. In the video above, Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein are clearly looking at these women as prey, theirs for the taking.

It must be noted that 24 women have come forward to detail sexual misconduct by Donald Trump, including a recent credible allegation from advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, who says Donald Trump aggressively raped her in a Bergdorf-Goodman fitting room in late 1995 or early 1996.  

The sooner we get this creep out the White House, the better. In the meantime, the media should be asking more about the relationship between Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump. 

Posted with permission