Newly reported details have shed light on the specific incident that led former US President Donald Trump to ban the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein from his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach. The ban came in 2003 after an 18-year-old beautician employed at the club's spa returned from a house call to Epstein's nearby mansion and reported that he had pressured her for sex.
The House Call Practice and the Final Straw
According to accounts from former employees of both Mar-a-Lago and Epstein, the club's spa had a practice of sending its workers—often young women—to provide in-home services like massages and manicures for certain members. Although Epstein was not a dues-paying member, Trump had instructed staff to treat him as one. Epstein maintained an account at the spa, and his companion, Ghislaine Maxwell, regularly booked appointments for him.
This arrangement continued for years, even as spa staff privately warned each other about Epstein's behaviour. He was known among employees for being sexually suggestive and for exposing himself during appointments. The situation reached a breaking point in 2003.
An 18-year-old beautician returned to Mar-a-Lago from a service call at Epstein's home and immediately reported to her managers that Epstein had pressured her for sexual acts. A manager then sent a fax to Donald Trump, who was the club's owner, relaying the employee's serious allegations and urging him to ban Epstein from the property. Trump reportedly responded that it was a good letter and said to "kick him out."
Warnings Ignored and a Pattern of Recruitment
The 2003 complaint was not the first sign of trouble. Concerns about Epstein's presence at the exclusive club had been raised years earlier, notably by Trump's then-wife, Marla Maples. In the mid-1990s, soon after the club opened, Maples repeatedly told staff and Trump that there was something "off" and "wrong" about Epstein and expressed worry about his influence.
Furthermore, Ghislaine Maxwell used her access to the Mar-a-Lago spa to recruit young female employees for unauthorized side work with Epstein. She would approach them, offering extra cash to give massages to her "friend." This is how she recruited Virginia Giuffre in the year 2000. Giuffre, who was 16 at the time, later became a central accuser in the Epstein case, alleging she was sexually trafficked by him and his associates. Giuffre died by suicide earlier this year.
The 18-year-old beautician's complaint in 2003 was reported to the club's human resources but was not forwarded to the Palm Beach police. The police department only began investigating Epstein two years later, in 2005, after a parent reported he had molested a 14-year-old girl.
Aftermath and Continued Scrutiny
Despite the spa ban in 2003, Trump and Epstein continued to have contact. Records show they were in competition for a Palm Beach property in late 2004, and Epstein's phone logs included two calls from Trump the month of the auction, which Trump ultimately won.
Trump's statements on when and why he ended the friendship have varied over time. After Epstein's 2019 arrest on federal sex-trafficking charges, Trump said, "I had a falling-out with him. I haven't spoken to him in 15 years." More recently, he stated he banned Epstein for poaching club staff. On Christmas Day 2025, Trump posted on social media that he was the "only one who did drop Epstein, and long before it became fashionable to do so."
The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, dismissed the new report as "fallacies and innuendo" intended to smear the President, reiterating that Trump "kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of Mar a Lago for being a creep."
The relationship between Trump and Epstein, which spanned from the 1980s to the early 2000s, remains under intense scrutiny. The US Justice Department has recently begun releasing thousands of documents from its Epstein files, some of which reference Trump, following a law passed by Congress in November 2025.
