LEMON DROP | Michael Wolff on Trump's Friendship with Jeffrey Epstein
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What prompted Don Lemon to interview Michael Wolff about Trump and Jeffrey Epstein?
Thanks for joining us, everyone. We're speaking to the author of the book, All or Nothing, How Trump Recaptured America, Mr. Michael Wolff. Michael, appreciate you joining. How are you doing? Of course, I'm great. How about you? I'm doing very well. I saw something, you speaking of something that I found very fascinating, because you know we have the whole Jeffrey Epstein coming up, and now all of a sudden Donald Trump is like, oh. I don't want to talk about Jeffrey Epstein. I don't know who he is. Why are you guys asking me questions about it? When he, you know, in many ways ran on this. You are saying that there have been talks that Donald Trump actually wanted to have conversations or had conversations about possibly pardoning Ghislaine Maxwell?
Well, let me clarify.
I know of a conversation in which, and this was at the moment of her death, conviction shortly after. And he said, what do you think she can say? And then the aides around him said, they didn't know. And they didn't want to go there because this is a no-go subject area. And then he said, should I pardon her? And equally, nobody wants him to pardon her and nobody really wants to go there so the conversation passed that's what i know so then okay why is this a no-go conversation among the subjects that everybody knows that are um that are problematic for Trump is Epstein. So once when I went to interview Epstein, this was in when I went down to Mar-a-Lago and the aides say, you know, they ask you for a sort of broad outline of what you want to talk about.
And I probably had 10 subjects, among them Jeffrey Epstein. And the one Trump aide said, listen, if you bring up Epstein, he will stop the interview. So this person said, my advice is, if you want to speak to him, if you want this interview to go on, don't bring this up. And in fact, I did not bring it up. And we spoke for several hours. Well, I, you know, I mean, and I have always I mean, I think the question is, is the broader question is how come Jeffrey Epstein has not been pinned on Donald Trump? I mean, Jeffrey Epstein has been pinned on a lot of people who have suffered for it, suffered for their acquaintance with with him. Donald Trump's acquaintance was much broader and deeper than anyone else's.
They were friends for more than a decade and not just friends, but joined at the hip friends, best friends. They shared, they hunted women together, hunt being the right word, right word for about a year. They shared a girlfriend back and forth. They were constantly on each other's planes. You know, they were in they had They gave each other business advice. They were extraordinarily close. And then ultimately, they fell out in 2004 over a real estate deal. But somehow Trump, as he avoids a accountability for virtually everything has avoided this he's avoided being pinned as one of the central relationships in in the life of Jeffrey Epstein do you think he's well obviously I guess he's told people I don't want to talk about this in interviews so if he doesn't want to talk about it in interviews I'm wondering why he brings it up in private but
You understand what I'm saying? People would, this is what someone would surmise, is that if they were friends for as long as you said that they were, I didn't know that Jeffrey Epstein, am I correct, said that Donald Trump was his best friend or one of his best friends? Yes. Yeah, correct. Then one, he's afraid to talk about it. And then two, why would he want to pardon Ghislaine?
Well, as we know, he hasn't pardoned her, but I think at the moment, That came up. I mean, a broader context, you know, Donald Trump views his pardon authority as absolute. I can pardon anyone, any time. So this is Ghislaine Maxwell is not the only person he is mused about pardoning. So, I mean, we can make we we can make the connection through, obviously, from Ghislaine to to Jeffrey Epstein. But. You might also say, you know, this was just, again, Donald Trump, he knew Ghislaine, obviously. I think that at a moment they knew each other fairly well.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What prompted Don Lemon to interview Michael Wolff about Trump and Jeffrey Epstein?
0:13–5:43
2
What evidence does Michael Wolff describe about Trump and Epstein's early relationship?
5:43–10:04
3
How did Michael Wolff characterize the depth of Trump and Epstein's friendship?
10:04–14:56
4
Why does Wolff say Trump avoids public discussion of Epstein despite private mentions?
14:56–19:46
5
What controversy arose around the promised Epstein files and their supposed disappearance?
19:46–21:38
6
How do MAGA supporters and pundits react to Epstein coverage according to the guests?
21:38–24:28
7
What insights does Wolff share about Trump’s use of pardon power and political favors?
24:28–25:49
8
What personal observations does Wolff offer about Trump’s marriage and access at Mar-a-Lago?
25:49–27:19