Vice President JD Vance and President Donald Trump’s core team had deep disagreements over how to handle fallout from the Jeffrey Epstein case last year, according to a new book.Vance wanted “maximum transparency” regarding releasing a multitude of government files related to the deceased convicted sex offender when the case blew up in the summer of 2025, according to an excerpt of the book Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump, written by New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan. On the other hand, Trump and those in his inner circle, particularly chief of staff Susie Wiles, reportedly favored a different approach, disdaining the flair for publicity and high-profile releases that Vance backed. In one of the most revealing inside looks into the disagreements, Wiles swiftly shut down Vance when he suggested media personality Tucker Carlson interview Epstein’s ex-girlfriend in an effort to clear Trump’s name, the authors wrote.
“Vance had also floated to colleagues an extraordinary P.R. gambit — that the White House enlist Tucker Carlson to interview Epstein’s longtime girlfriend and co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, in prison,” the book reads, describing an encounter between top officials during a Situation Room meeting on July 17. “It might help the president if Maxwell was willing to state that Trump had not been part of any wrongdoing with Epstein.”
