Archived copy of the article, for when view count limit on main gift link runs out
It contains several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker. A pair of small arcs denotes the woman’s breasts, and the future president’s signature is a squiggly “Donald” below her waist, mimicking pubic hair.
The sad thing is that Trump’s friendship with Epstein really does seem to be one of the closest / only friendships of his adult life.
If true, the implications of that are just so fucking disgusting… Because, presumably, it’s mainly just the one thing that they have in common
I suppose it’s possible that Trump thought that Epstein liked “young but legal” girls. That’s who he was often seen in public with. Trump could have bonded with him over that, and never realized that Epstein also liked the ones who were too young to be legal.
For Epstein, it would have been useful for people to know him as “that guy who likes young women, but always of legal age”. That way if someone ever spotted him with someone who looked too young, he’d have people coming to his defence saying “hey, he likes them young, but they’re always legal.”
I’m sure there were some people who knew the truth about Epstein, but what makes the most sense to me is that there was an inner circle that participated in the sex acts with underage girls, and a much bigger outer circle who just thought he liked young women. Otherwise, it doesn’t make sense to me how so many people with a lot to lose were eager to party with him and didn’t try very hard to hide it, like Bill Gates for example.
But yeah, maybe Trump was part of the inner circle. It would hardly be shocking given what we know about him.
I think it worse than that. I don’t think Donny has had any real or close friends for most of his adult life stemming from his childhood relationships with others.
He seems to be distrustful of anyone and can only see them for their value to his goals. Once they stop being useful or compliant, he gets rid of them or distances from them. Look at Musk, seemed real close and Donny manipulated Musk’s autistic nature as a useful tool, only to cut him loose once Musk realized the reality and wasn’t on-board anymore.
His marriages may be evidence to support this as well. Melania was around 28 and working as a model, which is “too old” for that line of work, and she saw him as a viable means to keep her dwindling career alive. She eventually latches into him because of his connections and wealth. She was a model to hang on his arm and tolerant of his cheating enough to stick around because she had aged out of being a model and didn’t like other prospects. I suspect their marriage is open as a convenience and to avoid a divorce that would no end well for Melania and/or Trump. A marriage that is more a business partnership than a relationship of genuine love, as if Donny is even capable of genuine love.
He probably grew up with others like him, who learned from their parents, that people are only useful to have around until they aren’t. This mirrors business relationships. Allowing for personal relationships opens you up to weakness and leverage over you, which can’t be allowed if you are to be successful.
The business world probably reinforced his view of personal relationships. People you would consider friends may end up getting in the way of your next step, so you have to position yourself emotionally so you can cut their throat and not think twice. You may do things to better your situation that may screw over a friend directly or indirectly, can’t let your feelings get in the way of doing what must be done for your interests, if they won’t capitulate.
Epstein was probably very useful for whatever purpose he served to Donny due to the known connections Epstein had, but problematic enough to keep a distance from. So he got a birthday card, just to keep enough of a connection should his utility become needed. I think he knew what Epstein was up to very well, but probably didn’t partake because he was/is too distrustful of anyone to allow them to get such leverage over him.
If he has/had interests in Epstein’s products, it is more Donny’s style to use a power imbalance to get what he wanted; like getting the daughter of an illegal immigrant or a beauty pageant contestant(maybe via the overbearing mother of one living vicariously). Having Epstein arrange for something would expose Donny to manipulation and I think he would not allow for such a degree of trust in another person.
So yeah, I don’t think he was friends with Epstein because he isn’t friends with or close to anyone.
Sure, but have you seen the video of Trump talking into Epstein’s ear while the two were watching cheerleaders or something. That scene genuinely seemed to be one where he was treating Epstein as a friend. I’m not sure how much Epstein thought of Trump as a friend, but it did really look like Trump wanted Epstein to be his friend at that point.
I agree that he mostly doesn’t have friends because he sees everyone as tools to be used and discarded. That’s probably how most of them view him too, like Musk. But, I wouldn’t be surprised if Epstein was one of the few people he viewed as a friend. He knew him for at least 15 years, and with most people he’d have discarded them already.