Biographer recalls when Trump and Epstein competed over Clinton

Few figures have gripped the public fascination and horror quite like sex trafficker Jeffery Epstein, whose ties to elite circles have shaken power structures around the world. While he has been linked to many high-profile people, perhaps none of his friendships have raised as much controversy as those with current President Donald Trump and former President Bill Clinton.

Now according to new reporting from journalist Michael Wolff — who spent 20 years in Epstein’s orbit — an interesting rivalry involving these three men has been revealed.

Epstein’s plane has become infamous for its passenger list, which included some of the most renowned names in the world. The plane was a key bargaining chip used by Epstein to build the elite network that allowed him to become the “dark connector” that he was, garnering him influence and favors in exchange for flying privileges.

In 2002, he thought — it turned out rightly so — that it could be his ticket to friendship with the then-wildly popular Bill Clinton.

According to Wolff, there were two reasons Epstein was aiming for such a connection. On one hand, the ex-president offered the highest echelon of political contacts. But on the other, “Epstein had, like so many others of the time, a Clinton crush, a childlike awe of his political talents and for the ways he had flown so near the sun.”

What’s more, “Epstein’s friend, Donald Trump, had a Clinton crush, too.”

Says Wolff, proximity to and friendship with Clinton had become something of a competition between the two men: “Perhaps they both saw themselves in Clinton, and saw their race to be noted as friends of Bill as a way to have it all — legitimacy and, as Epstein put it, ‘lifestyle.'”

But Epstein bested Trump in that regard after giving Clinton free use of his plane. The bond it forged between Epstein and Clinton was so firm that it was even written about by the New York Post, which ran a story on the ex-president traveling with the mysterious, increasingly well-connected financier.

In fact, Epstein later asserted that this friendship with Clinton and the Post’s coverage of it got him too much attention, ultimately resulting in his arrest.

“You have to remember how much people hated Clinton, for being as popular as he was and for what he had gotten away with,” Epstein claimed. “Clinton was the guy who made it all so personal, every public attack. I walked into that, collateral damage.”

Last month, Trump declared that he was “not happy” to see Clinton called to testify over the Epstein Files, saying, “Look, I like him, and I don’t like seeing him deposed.”