July 29, 2025

Trump, Epstein, and the Billion-Dollar Air Force One Mystery

Show Notes
Transcript

Patrick Gutfield dives into Trump’s wild 1990s friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, the shady modeling agency connections, and that infamous Mar-a-Lago party with 28 young women. Plus, the jaw-dropping $934 million secret Air Force One makeover funded by nuclear missile money.

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Callaroga Shark Media from Washington, DC were seriously released the

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Epstein files already. This is ballad, that's right, And I'm

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fine with you releasing the Epstein files because I'm not

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in them. Hi, I'm Patrick Gutfield. And USA Today reported

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how back in the nineteen nineties, Trump and Epstein were

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basically the poster boys for New York Excess, two rich

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guys living blocks apart in Manhattan, both with mansions in

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Florida just two miles from each other, throwing parties that

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would make Studio fifty four look like a church potluck.

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These weren't your typical rich guy hangouts either. Trump owned

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the Plaza Hotel and would host parties there that, according

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to author Michael Gross, had a very specific guest list criteria.

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As Gross jokingly put it, if they were checking IDs,

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it was to make sure the girls were young enough,

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which is the kind of joke that stops being funny

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when you realize it might not be a joke. Trump

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even started his own modeling agency in nineteen ninety nine,

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Trump Models, because apparently, when you're already running casinos and hotels,

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the natural next step is, you know what this empire needs?

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Teen models. The agency represented Malania, who would become his

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third wife, and various teenage models. Meanwhile, Epstein was investing

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in modeling agencies too, including one run by a guy

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who had been banned from his previous agency in Europe

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for abuse allegations. There's apparently actual video from nineteen ninety

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two of Trump and Epstein at Mara a Lago hanging

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out with Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins cheerleaders dancing to

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rhythm is a dancer and honestly, that sentence contained so

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many red flags it could be used to direct traffic.

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At one mar A Lago party, according to The New

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York Times, the guest list was Trump, Epstein, and twenty

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eight young women. Trump famously called Epstein a terrific guy

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in two thousand and two, telling New York Magazine He's

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a lot of fun to be with. It is even

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said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do,

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and many of them are on the younger side. Trump's

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friendship with Epstein apparently ended around two thousand and four,

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when they had a falling out over a Palm beach

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mansion called Maison de le Metie, which is French for

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house of friendship Trump outfit. Epstein paid forty one million dollars,

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then flipped it for ninety five million to a Russian billionaire,

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So their friendship ended over real estate, which is probably

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the most Trump way possible to end a friendship. Trump

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now claims he wasn't a fan of Epstein and kicked

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him out of mar A Lago for being a creep,

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which raises the obvious question, how long does it take

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to figure out someone's a creep when you're parting with

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them and twenty eight young women at your private club.

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The most telling part of this whole story might be

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Trump's confusion about why anyone cares. I don't understand why

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the Jeffrey Epstein case would be of interest to anybody,

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he told reporters. Really, you don't understand why people might

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be interested in a billionaire sex trafficker who had connections

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to powerful politicians and died under mysterious circumstances in federal custody.

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As author Mike Rothschild put it, the story isn't Epstein anymore.

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The story is Donald Trump talking about Epstein. Remember that

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free air Force one Trump got from Qatar? And when

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I say free, I mean free the way a rescue

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dog is free. Sure, there's no adoption feed, but you're

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about to spend a fortune on vet bills, toys, and

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explaining to your neighbors why your new pet keeps barking

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at three in the morning. Now, the official cost of

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this Air Force one makeover classify, which is government speak

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for so expensive. We had to hide it from ourselves,

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even by Washington standards, where they use black budgets to

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hide the cost of everything from spy satellites to really

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nice office Christmas parties. This level of secrecy is impressive,

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But Congressional budget detectives and yes, that's apparently a real job,

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have discovered something fascinating. There's been a nine hundred and

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thirty four million dollar transfer from the Pentagon. Nine hundred

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and thirty four million. That money was quietly moved from

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America's nuclear missile modernization program to what's described as an

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unnamed classified project. The nuclear missile program, by their way,

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is called Sentinel, which sounds like a superhero but performs

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more like that friend who promises to help you move

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and then shows up three hours late with a Honda Civic.

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The plane will be renovated at a Texas facility known

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for secret technology projects. Secret technology projects that's either incredibly

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sophisticated or they're just really good at hiding the fact

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that they're using duct tape. This plane renovation will take

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a year or two to complete. Then after Trump leaves

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office in twenty twenty nine, the Golden aircraft, and yes,

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there will be gold trim because of course there will

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be gets transferred to Trump's future presidential library. So let

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me understand this correctly. We're spending nearly a billion dollars

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of nuclear security money to renovate a plane, and then

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it becomes a museum exhibit. But here's my favorite part

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of this whole story. The Air Force says they can't

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discuss the cost of renovating the president's plane because it's classified,

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but they're perfectly happy to discuss the cost of building

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intercontinental ballistic missiles. Portions of today's show were made with

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the help of AI and the Epstein Files.