These Old Trump Accusations Feel Darker Than Ever In The Epstein Context

MAGA supporters are shocked by recent revelations about U.S. President Donald Trump’s close friendship with child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. 

As Trump faces increased scrutiny and questioning around the Epstein files, old interviews, clips, and comments are coming back to bite him.

“It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side,” Trump once said about Epstein, a remark that now carries chilling weight. 

Renewed interest in Trump’s friendship with Epstein is bringing back sexual harassment complaints against him

Image credits: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

According to reports, Trump and Epstein socialized frequently and were considered to be close friends.

Jack O’Donnell, who served as president of the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City that Epstein and Trump frequented from 1987 to 1991, told CNN, “In my mind, Epstein was his best friend.”

Trump even hosted a “calendar girl” contest at Mar-a-Lago with Epstein as his only guest.

A Wall Street Journal exposé further alleged that Trump once drew a pair of breasts inside a birthday card for Epstein. 

While these allegations are troubling, they underscore one thing: Trump has a pattern of sexualizing women. But the world already knew this, way before Trump was elected president. 

Since the 1970s, at least 26 women have accused Donald Trump of sexual misconduct. 

In 2016, multiple women spoke out against Trump’s history of sexual misconduct. He responded by calling them “horrible, horrible liars,” and denied any wrongdoing. 

But taken together, the accounts form a deeply troubling picture of his behavior toward women and girls. 

In 2016, Trump was secretly taped saying, “I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ’em by the p***y. You can do anything.” 

Trump was taped boasting about kissing and groping women without their consent

The following list chronicles some of the most prominent allegations of rape, groping, commenting, and objectification involving Trump’s treatment of women.

Rape allegations

Jean Carroll — In 2019, author E. Jean Carroll publicly accused Trump of raping her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the mid-1990s. Carroll detailed the encounter in her memoir and later testified under oath. A jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation and awarded Carroll $5 million. 

During the trial, Jessica Leeds and Natasha Stoynoff testified with their own stories of alleged sexual misconduct by Trump to support Carroll’s account.

Image credits: Stephanie Keith/Getty Images

Jill Harth — Trump’s former business partner, Jill Harth, accused Trump of “attempted rape” during a 1997 incident at Mar-a-Lago. She claimed Trump lured her into his daughter’s bedroom, pushing her against a wall and putting his hand up her dress. Harth also accused Trump of groping her during business meetings in the 1990s. She described one dinner where he slid his hand up her skirt under the table. 

Ivana Trump — In her 1990 divorce deposition, Ivana Trump described a violent encounter in which Trump allegedly attacked her, pulling out her hair and raping her. She later clarified she didn’t intend the term in a “criminal sense.”

Trump’s ex-wife, Ivana, alleged that Trump attacked and raped her

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Groping and sexual assault allegations

Jessica Leeds — Leeds told The New York Times that Trump groped her on a flight in the early 1980s. She said he grabbed her breasts and tried to put his hand up her skirt without consent. 

“He was like an octopus … His hands were everywhere,” she said.

Stacey Williams — Two weeks before the 2024 election, Stacey Williams told The Guardian that she first met Donald Trump in 1992 through Jeffrey Epstein, who arranged for her to visit Trump at Trump Tower. There, Trump allegedly groped her breasts and buttocks.

Amy Dorris — In 2020, former model Amy Dorris said Trump forcibly kissed and groped her in his private box at the U.S. Open tennis championship in 1997. Trump “shoved his tongue down my throat” and “his hands were very gropey and all over my butt, my breasts, my back, everything,” she told The Guardian.

Amy Dorris and dozens of other women have accused Trump of groping them

Karena Virginia — Virginia, a yoga instructor, recalled Trump talking to his friends while looking at her while she waited for a car outside the U.S. Open in 1998, saying, “Hey, look at this one, we haven’t seen her before,” a comment that made her feel objectified.

She told The Washington Post in 2016 that Trump groped her by unexpectedly wrapping his right arm around her and touching her breast. When she flinched at his touch, he allegedly said, “Don’t you know who I am?”

Karen Johnson — Johnson was attending a party at Mar-a-Lago with her husband when Trump pulled her behind a tapestry to kiss and grope her during a New Year’s Eve party in the early 2000s.

“When he says that thing, ‘Grab them in the p***y,’ that hits me hard because when he grabbed me and pulled me into the tapestry, that’s where he grabbed me ― he grabbed me there in my front and pulled me in,” she told journalists Barry Levine and Monique El-Faizy.

Melinda McGillivray — McGillivray accused Trump of grabbing her buttocks during a 2003 concert at Mar-a-Lago. She told The Palm Beach Post that the assault happened as she posed for a photo with Trump.

Disturbing comments about women

Alicia Machado — After the former Miss Universe gained weight, Trump called her “Miss Piggy” and “an eating machine.” He also called her “Miss Housekeeping,” referring to her Latin origins.

Trump has made several sexist and lewd comments about women’s appearances 

Image credits: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Trump called adult film actress Stormy Daniels “horse face,” and TV star Rosie O’Donnell as having “a fat, ugly face” and being “disgusting.”

Omarosa Manigault Newman — After Newman, Trump’s former aide, published her book Unhinged, Trump responded by calling her “that dog” and a “crazed, crying lowlife.” He did the same with Gail Collins, a New York Newsday journalist, whose column he did not like, calling her “a dog and a liar,” and said that she had “the face of a pig.”

Kamala Harris — During the 2024 presidential election, Trump made the fight personal. He repeatedly attacked Vice President Kamala Harris, calling her a “b***h,” “monster,” and “nasty.” 

Image credits: Win McNamee/Getty Images

Hillary Clinton – Similar to Harris, Trump made crude comments about his 2016 campaign rival. “If Hillary Clinton can’t satisfy her husband, what makes her think she can satisfy America?” He also accused her of playing the “woman’s card” and said, “If Hillary Clinton were a man, I don’t think she’d get 5 percent of the vote.”

Carly Fiorina – While discussing former Republican candidate Carly Fiorina, Trump told Rolling Stone, “Look at that face. Would anyone vote for that?” 

In an April 2005 interview on The Howard Stern Show, Trump recounted the “funniest” incident about going backstage before Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants and being the only man in the room while the women were “standing there with no clothes.” As the owner, “I sort of get away with things like that,” he boasted. 

Trump recounted a ‘funny’ incident of watching models change backstage at beauty pageants

In 2016, five former Miss Teen USA contestants told BuzzFeed News that Trump had walked into their dressing room while they were changing in 1997. The girls were aged between 14 and 19.

Lisa Boyne — A health food business entrepreneur, Boyne told HuffPost in 2016 about the time she attended a dinner with Trump in 1996, where women were forced to walk across a table while Trump looked up their skirts and commented on their underwear and bodies. “[Trump] stuck his head right underneath their skirts,” she said.

Taken together, these accounts reflect a long history of allegations regarding Trump’s behavior toward women.

When viewed alongside his long friendship with Epstein, these allegations take on an even darker significance.