Epstein Email Reveals Trump’s Decline Started Earlier Than We Thought

Jeffrey Epstein claimed that people were “concerned” that President Donald Trump was suffering from dementia as early as 2017.

In an email Epstein sent to author Michael Wolff on December 29, 2017, the alleged sex trafficker fretted that his old friend Trump wasn’t doing well.

“some at dinner with donald last night ,   were concerned about dementia.    tons of makeup.  did not recognize old friends,” Epstein wrote.

It’s not clear that Epstein was present at the dinner, but at the time, Trump was staying at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Springs, where he gave a wide-ranging impromptu interview to The New York Times that had immensely frustrated his staffers.

Less than a month later, Trump sat for his first presidential physical exam, and White House physician Ronny Jackson claimed he was in “excellent” health—and the president reportedly scored a 30/30 on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, a common dementia screening.

But Epstein’s email offers a window into Trump’s inner circle, demonstrating just how clear the president’s cognitive decline has been to the people who know him best. Nine years later, Trump’s apparent instances of cognitive decline have only become more common—and more public.

Former White House attorney Ty Cobb recently said he believed the president’s “dementia and the cognitive decline are palpable, as do many experts, including many physicians.”

In 2017, Trump’s iconic clementine complexion was startling to behold. Now, the president wears makeup to cover massive bruises that appear to migrate from one hand to another, and doctors have theorized that the president’s discolored hands could be a sign of something much worse.