The former president of the doomed Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City said he had to confront Donald Trump in the 1980s for showing up on the casino floor with Jeffrey Epstein and a 19-year-old.
Jack O’Donnell told CNN’s Erin Burnett that while the woman wasn’t a minor, the casino risked a major fine or even losing its license for letting anyone under 21 inside. O’Donnell said he also warned Trump, who turned 40 in 1986, it was “not going to look good” if he is seen hanging out with young women and Epstein, who was later exposed as a pedophile.
“One incident that I think kind of proves their closeness and how much they hung out together. One time I came in and the commission was waiting, the inspectors were waiting in my office, and Donald and Jeffrey had come into the casino in the wee hours of Sunday morning, 1, 1:30 in the morning,” O’Donnell said.
He added that Epstein and Trump were with a group of three women and that the officials knew one of them was 19 because she was the No. 3 ranked female tennis player at the time.
“To get on a helicopter with a friend and three other people and fly down to Atlantic City, I mean, you can connect those dots, they were pretty good buddies,” O’Donnell added.
Trump has been scrambling to distance himself from Epstein, who died in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, as pressure mounts over the DOJ and FBI’s handling of the so-called Epstein files.
Trump has even lashed out at his own supporters for demanding his administration release Epstein’s alleged “client list” and for repeating conspiracy theories that Epstein was murdered rather than took his own life in a New York jail cell.
Among those who once vowed to release all files connected to Epstein was Trump himself.
“My PAST supporters have bought into this ‘‘bulls--t’ hook, line, and sinker,” Trump, 79, posted Wednesday on Truth Social. “Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work, don’t even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don’t want their support anymore.”
Trump and Epstein were close for years, with Epstein even once describing the president as his “closest friend.” There’s no evidence Trump was involved in or aware of Epstein’s crimes, and the two reportedly fell out around 2004 over a Palm Beach real estate deal.
After detailing just how tight the pair were in the 1980s, O’Donnell told CNN how he had to read Trump “the riot act” for bringing underage women onto the casino floor.
“I had to call them and say look, they’re giving you a break this time, but if this happens again, the fine is going to be substantial and it’s going to be on your head,” O’Donnell said. “And by the way, it’s not going to look good, you and this guy Epstein coming down here with these young women.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast.
