According to a Quinnipiac University poll, the majority of U.S. voters disapprove of Trump's handling of files related to Epstein, a wealthy financier who died by suicide in jail in August 2019, weeks after his arrest on sex trafficking charges.

Here is a timeline of Epstein and Trump’s relationship. Though it is not known when Epstein and Trump first met, Trump told New York magazine in 2002 that he had known Epstein for 15 years, which would date back to the late 1980s. “Terrific guy,” Trump said in the 2002 interview.

Trump knew Epstein socially in the 1990s and early 2000s. During the 2021 trial of Epstein's associate Ghislaine Maxwell, the financier's longtime pilot, Lawrence Visoski, testifi