Trump’s Sickening Old Remarks on Rape Resurface as Epstein Scandal Threatens to Explode

A decades-old clip of President Donald Trump dismissing the rape of an 18-year-old woman has resurfaced — and it’s igniting a fresh wave of outrage as his ties to Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell come under renewed scrutiny.

The footage, now going viral on social media, shows Trump on Late Night with David Letterman in 1992 defending heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson, who had just been convicted of raping beauty pageant contestant Desiree Washington.

This whole interview is a window into how arrogant and narcissistic Trump is.

Here, he tells Charlie Rose he thought Mike Tyson was "badly represented" in his rape case, questions the victim’s behavior, and says he isn’t sure Tyson was guilty.

(Rose was later fired and in 2024,… pic.twitter.com/e5wxi56gwC

— Blue Georgia (@BlueATLGeorgia) July 27, 2025

“It’s ridiculous,” Trump tells Letterman, criticizing the six-year prison sentence Tyson received. Trump went further, suggesting that Washington’s late-night visit to Tyson’s hotel room somehow made the situation less serious.

“Here’s a woman that was dancing at his door at one o’clock in the morning,” Trump said, his tone dripping with skepticism. “Mike should serve some time and everything else, but to keep a man [in prison]… I think he should supply millions and millions and millions of dollars to rape victims, and that’s a hell of a lot better than him sitting in a jailhouse for six years.”

In a separate appearance that same year on The Charlie Rose Show, Trump went even further — openly questioning whether the crime even happened.

“She was raped perhaps, perhaps not,” he told Rose.

Epstein and Maxwell Back in the Spotlight

The comments have resurfaced at a politically explosive moment for Trump. His administration is already facing intense backlash over its handling of the Epstein files.

In July, the Justice Department and FBI released a memo insisting Epstein’s 2019 jailhouse death was a suicide, and denying that any “client list” of wealthy abusers existed. The statement contradicted earlier remarks by Trump’s own attorney general, Pam Bondi, who said in February, “The Jeffrey Epstein client list is sitting on my desk right now.”

The reversal has fueled accusations of a cover-up — even among members of Trump’s Republican base, many of whom once demanded “full transparency” about Epstein’s network.

Trump, who once described Epstein as a “terrific guy” who “likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side,” is now scrambling to contain the damage.

The Ghislaine Maxwell Connection

Adding fuel to the fire, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche — Trump’s former criminal defense lawyer — personally visited Ghislaine Maxwell in prison last month for what sources describe as a “highly unusual” interview.

Maxwell, serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking minors, reportedly told Blanche she had “never seen Trump do anything inappropriate.” Days later, Maxwell was quietly transferred to a lower-security prison camp in Bryan, Texas — a move critics say reeks of political favoritism.

Now, multiple outlets report the White House is considering releasing the transcript of that interview — a move Democrats warn could be a pretext to lay the groundwork for a presidential pardon.

“Let’s be clear,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) said in a Friday statement. “The president has a long history of minimizing sexual violence, and now he’s using the powers of his office to protect people who were part of Epstein’s trafficking ring. That’s not justice — that’s corruption.”

Public Outrage Grows

On social media, the reaction has been fierce. Women’s rights advocates have accused Trump of “normalizing” rape culture for decades. “If you want to understand Trump’s approach to women, watch the 1992 clip,” said activist Amanda Nguyen. “It’s the same blame-the-victim mentality he’s carried into the White House.”

With the 2026 midterms looming, Democrats see an opening to hammer the president’s record on sexual misconduct — not only his own accusations, but the company he keeps.

As for Trump, he has yet to address the Tyson comments directly. But his allies in right-wing media have already begun framing the outrage as a “smear campaign” to distract from what they claim are “Democrat scandals.”

Still, as one Democratic strategist told me:

“This isn’t just an old TV clip. It’s a window into who Trump has always been — a man who protects predators and mocks survivors. And that’s something America should never forget.”