Epstein Warned Trump Was ‘Evil Beyond Belief’ and ‘Mad’ After Mental Health Scrutiny

The op-ed drew on mental health experts who said Trump displayed signs of mania and posed an “imminent danger” to the public as legal and political pressure mounted around him. It was published the same weekend as porn star Stormy Daniels’ blockbuster 60 Minutes interview, which detailed her alleged affair with Trump and a hush-money deal at the center of his criminal case.

In the March 24, 2018, exchange with then–New York Times reporter Landon Thomas Jr. that included a link to the piece, Thomas told Epstein that Trump, now 79, was “scaring the s–t” out of him and warned the president “could well tank [the] global economy,” urging Epstein to try to speak to him.

Hours later, Epstein replied: “he feels alone. and is nuts !!! , I told everyone from day one. evil beyond belief. mad, and most thought i was speaking metaphorically. its obvious he could crack.”

He added, “stormy daniels. ? lies after lies after lies.” It is not clear if Epstein was suggesting Trump, or Daniels, was being misleading in their account of what went on between the pair.

The reference to Daniels came more than six years before the 2024 New York criminal case which saw Trump convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records over a 2016 campaign hush-money payment to the actress, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford. Trump is appealing the verdict.

The March 23, 2018, Beast article by Gail Sheehy and Rosemary Sword reported that prominent psychiatrists had broken with the American Psychiatric Association’s “Goldwater rule” to warn that Trump appeared dangerously unstable, citing concerns he was in a manic state as the Mueller investigation closed in and ahead of Daniels’ upcoming interview.

The “evil beyond belief” email is part of a 20,000-page trove from Epstein’s estate that House Democrats say exposes how closely he tracked Trump’s presidency—and how alarmed he claimed to be.

In other messages Epstein described Trump as a “maniac” showing signs of “early dementia,” and warned former Obama White House lawyer Kathryn Ruemmler that treating Trump like a mafia boss underestimated the “great dangerous power” of a sitting commander in chief.

Epstein also told Emirati businessman Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem in 2018 that “Donald is close to no one… He tells each one something different,” echoing comments he made about Trump on tapes obtained and published by the Daily Beast last year.

The documents shed new light on a long, awkward relationship between the two men. Trump and Epstein moved in the same New York and Palm Beach circles for years.

In 2002, Trump told New York magazine he had “known Jeff for 15 years” and called him a “terrific guy,” adding that “he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”

They socialized in the 1990s and early 2000s at Palm Beach, Florida, parties and at Trump’s private members club Mar-a-Lago. Flight logs later showed Trump, then a real estate mogul, flew on Epstein’s private plane several times in the 1990s.

Their relationship is widely reported to have cooled after a 2004 fight over a Florida mansion and claims that Trump later barred Epstein from Mar-a-Lago.

By 2019, after Epstein was arrested on federal sex-trafficking charges, Trump claimed the pair had fallen out years earlier and insisted he had “not spoken to him in 15 years” and was “not a fan,” comments at odds with his earlier praise.

Trump has denied knowing about his abuse of girls. He has not been accused of criminal wrongdoing in Epstein’s abuse of minors and has also always denied any wrongdoing related to the convicted sex offender.

The newly released emails come amid a political fight over the files. Trump has urged supporters to stop pressing him to declassify every record, even as lawmakers from both parties demand full disclosure and have subpoenaed Epstein materials from the Justice Department and his estate.

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and Landon Thomas Jr. for comment.

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