Jeffrey Epstein’s Chilling Confession About Donald Trump Revealed: 'I Don’t Have a Death Wish'

Author Michael Wolff recently disclosed in his Substack newsletter, "Howl," that Jeffrey Epstein was genuinely terrified of Donald Trump and took Trump's early presidential ambitions more seriously than anyone else.

In a detailed account published on Tuesday, September 8, Wolff wrote that the late convicted s-- offender grew deeply unsettled by Trump's rise to power.

According to Wolff's piece and his extensive interviews with the financier before his 2019 death, Epstein's fear stemmed from an intimate knowledge of Trump's ruthlessness.

“He was afraid of Trump, terrified perhaps,” Wolff wrote. “And when Trump won, Epstein saw the game change for him personally.”

Epstein reportedly believed he possessed dangerous, compromising information that could harm both himself and Trump. When Wolff urged him to share it publicly, Epstein allegedly declined, stating, "I may be a p--------, but I don't have a death wish."

The friendship between Trump and Epstein famously shattered in 2004 during a bitter property bidding war in Palm Beach, Fla. Epstein claimed he had threatened Trump over an alleged money-laundering scheme involving a Russian oligarch.

Trump’s rise to president, Wolff said, became Epstein’s obsession.

“It was an obsession born out of his personal understanding of his old friend, and, I believe, his particular fear of him,” he wrote. “You can’t evaluate Epstein’s friendship with Trump, his obsession with him, and his fear, without seeing it in the context of the steps Trump’s government took against him — and of Epstein’s unlikely, if not implausible, end.”

Shortly after their falling out, the Palm Beach Police Department launched its initial investigation into Epstein regarding underage girls. Wolff noted that Epstein personally credited Trump with instigating that investigation out of revenge.

Wolff’s relationship with Epstein has faced intense scrutiny, particularly after the U.S. House Oversight Committee released a massive tranche of 23,000 emails in late 2025.

The documents revealed that Wolff had frequently communicated with Epstein during Trump’s 2015 campaign, offering strategic advice and tipping him off about upcoming media inquiries. Wolff maintained he was simply playing a role to gain a powerful source's trust.

In early 2026, following a separate release of Department of Justice files related to Epstein, Trump lashed out at Wolff from Air Force One, calling him a "third-rate writer" and threatening legal action.

Wolff fired back, daring the president to sue, noting a lawsuit would give him the legal power to subpoena Trump to testify under oath about his decade-long bond with Epstein.

“I believe that Epstein understood the wholly unique position he was in: he had led a depraved life — one which the president of the United States had participated in,” Wolff wrote. “Epstein, for Trump, was a dangerous man. But Epstein understood, based on firsthand experience, that Trump was a dangerous man for him — as president, maximally dangerous.”