Donald Trump Says He Threw Jeffrey Epstein Out of Mar-A-Lago After Heckler Interrupts His Speech in Ohio

President Donald Trump revisited his Mar-a-Lago break with Jeffrey Epstein after a heckler interrupted his campaign rally in Chillicothe, Ohio, on Wednesday, 28 October 2026.

The confrontation unfolded at the Shoemaker Center on the Ohio University Chillicothe campus where the heckler, comedian Rob Potylo, who performs as Robby Roadsteamer, sang that Trump had travelled on Epstein's private plane.

Police escorted him out as audience members booed, but his intervention prompted the president to revisit his former friendship with Epstein.

Trump said he had removed Epstein from his Palm Beach club roughly two decades earlier because he considered him a 'whack job'. That explanation differed from his account in July 2025, when he said Epstein had recruited women working at Mar-a-Lago's spa.

Donald Trump Responds to Jeffrey Epstein Heckler at Ohio Rally

Potylo interrupted Trump while the president was discussing Republican Senator Jon Husted ahead of the 3 November midterm elections.

In footage Potylo posted on social media, he repeated, 'Trump went on the Jeffrey Epstein plane,' before officers led him through the crowd.

His recording captured the removal from his perspective. He continued talking as he was escorted out, telling those around him, 'No political violence. We're all buddies.'

Potylo was not the only person removed. Local broadcaster WOSU Public Media reported that police escorted three protesters from the venue during the event, which also featured support for Ohio Republican candidates.

Trump returned to the microphone and criticised the protesters, describing them as losers and linking them to what he called the radical left. He also alleged that protesters had been paid to disrupt his speech.

'We have it traced now, $250,' Trump said, referring to an alleged payment of approx. (£187 and €224). He offered no documentation demonstrating that Potylo or the other protesters had received money, and his assertion remains unverified.

The Epstein reference was not simply an unsupported allegation about a flight. A US Department of Justice disclosure in December 2025 included a prosecutor's email describing records listing Trump on Epstein's private jet.

According to Reuters, the records listed Trump as a passenger on at least eight flights between 1993 and 1996. Ghislaine Maxwell, later convicted of helping Epstein sexually abuse underage girls, was listed on at least four.

The prosecutor's email did not accuse Trump of committing a crime. Travelling on the aircraft does not, by itself, establish involvement in Epstein's offences.

Reuters also reported that Trump had denied ever travelling on Epstein's plane in a 2024 social media post.

Jeffrey Epstein Remarks Raise Questions About Trump's Mar-a-Lago Explanation

Trump told the Ohio audience that he had expelled Epstein from a club 'because I thought he was a whack job.' He subsequently identified Mar-a-Lago and portrayed Epstein as someone associated with Democrats.

In the recorded rally transcript, Trump claimed Epstein 'was a Democrat'. However, his remarks did not establish that Epstein's relationships were confined to one political party.

Epstein had documented social connections across political circles, including his former association with Trump. Those relationships do not establish anyone's involvement in Epstein's crimes.

The explanation for the end of their relationship has varied over time. In July 2025, while speaking in Scotland, Trump said he had barred Epstein after the financier recruited female employees from the Mar-a-Lago spa despite being told to stop.

The following day, Trump named Virginia Giuffre as among the workers he believed Epstein had recruited from the club. Giuffre had previously said Maxwell recruited her while she was a teenager working at Mar-a-Lago.

Other accounts place the apparent breakdown in the relationship at different points. Reporting examined by PolitiFact identified a 2004 dispute between the two men over a Palm Beach mansion. Another account concerned Epstein's alleged inappropriate behaviour towards a club member's teenage daughter.

The latter explanation was reported by journalists citing a club member, rather than established as the definitive reason for the split. Records cited in the reporting indicate that Epstein's Mar-a-Lago membership was closed around October 2007.

Trump and Epstein had moved in overlapping New York and Florida social circles throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. In 2019, Trump said he had not spoken to Epstein for approximately 15 years. He has also maintained that he was unaware of Epstein's sexual abuse.

At the Ohio rally, Trump provided no new documentation supporting the reason or timing of Epstein's departure from his club.

His response to the heckler renewed scrutiny of their former association. While flight records establish earlier contact between the two men, the precise circumstances surrounding the end of their relationship remain disputed.