Trump Ordered Epstein Removal from Mar-a-Lago in 2003, Years Before His Crimes Were Public

According to reporting, former Mar-a-Lago and Jeffrey Epstein employees stated that President Donald Trump banned Epstein from the club after a 2003 incident involving a young spa employee. The report detailed that for years, Mar-a-Lago’s spa had sent employees—typically young women—to Epstein’s nearby mansion for massages and other services. Former employees reported that staff warned one another about Epstein’s behavior during these house calls, describing him as sexually suggestive and prone to exposing himself.

That practice ended in 2003 after an 18-year-old beautician returned from a house call and informed managers that Epstein pressured her to have sex. A manager sent Trump a fax detailing the allegation and urged Epstein be barred from the club. Trump agreed and ordered Epstein removed.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated: “No matter how many times this story is told and retold, the truth remains: President Trump did nothing wrong and he kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago for being a creep.”

The White House accused reporting of “writing up fallacies and innuendo in order to smear President Trump.” The report emphasized that mentions of Trump in recently released Epstein-related documents do not indicate wrongdoing.

Epstein was not a dues-paying member of Mar-a-Lago, but Trump had previously instructed staff to treat him as one. Epstein maintained an account at the spa where Ghislaine Maxwell, his longtime associate, booked appointments and charged services in his name. Maxwell regularly visited the spa and helped arrange house calls.

The beautician’s allegation was reported internally to Mar-a-Lago’s human resources department but was not referred to Palm Beach police at the time. Law enforcement did not begin investigating Epstein until 2005, after a parent accused him of abusing a 14-year-old girl. Epstein was arrested in 2006 and later pleaded guilty to prostitution-related charges.

He was arrested again in 2019 on federal sex-trafficking charges and died in jail while awaiting trial. His death was ruled a suicide.

According to the report, concerns about Epstein had circulated at Mar-a-Lago well before 2003. Trump’s second wife, Marla Maples, warned Trump and staff in the mid-1990s that something about Epstein seemed “off.”

Although Epstein was barred from the spa in 2003, Trump and Epstein crossed paths on occasion afterward, including competing for a Palm Beach property in 2004 that Trump ultimately won. Trump has stated he cut ties with Epstein years before Epstein’s first arrest and long before his crimes became widely known.

When asked why he stopped socializing with Epstein, Trump said: “He did it again, and I threw him out of the place, persona non grata.”

Virginia Giuffre, a former Mar-a-Lago spa employee who later accused Epstein of abuse, testified that she never saw Trump participate in any misconduct and wrote in her memoir that Trump “couldn’t have been friendlier” when she met him. Giuffre killed herself April 25, 2025.