Fox News host and former Trump aide falsely claims president was never on Epstein’s plane — fox news coverage

Kayleigh McEnany, identified in the hearing coverage as a host and Donald Trump’s first-term White House press secretary, mistakenly told viewers that Donald Trump had never been on Jeffrey Epstein’s private jet. The broadcast exchange took place amid discussion of Bill Clinton’s House testimony about his ties to Epstein, and the phrase recurred across related coverage.

host's false claim

During an on-air discussion of Bill Clinton’s testimony to the House oversight committee, Marie Harf said, “I want everyone who’s mentioned multiple times here to be deposed, ” and named Larry Summers, Bill Gates and, “you’re all probably going to yell at me, Donald Trump. ” Harf elaborated that Trump should be required to testify about crimes Jeffrey Epstein committed during the nearly two decades the two men were friends. McEnany interrupted to defend her former boss and said, “I would note that Donald Trump was not on the plane, ” which was incorrect. McEnany added, “So putting him in the same pool as Bill Clinton, who was on the plane I think it was 17 times, 27 times” — a figure she misstated.

Epstein’s plane flight records

Documents made public by the justice department contradict McEnany’s claim. Bill Clinton was recorded on Epstein’s plane 26 times during six trips between February 2002 and November 2003. A 2020 email exchange, made public in December, quotes a federal prosecutor saying, “the flight records we received yesterday reflect that Donald Trump traveled on Epstein’s private jet many more times than previously has been reported (or that we were aware), including during the period we would expect to charge in a Maxwell case. ” The prosecutor wrote that Trump “is listed as a passenger on at least eight flights between 1993 and 1996, including at least four flights on which Maxwell was also present. ”

Prosecutor notes and passenger details

The prosecutor in Manhattan, where Ghislaine Maxwell was tried and convicted in 2021, set out specific flight details: “On one flight in 1993, he and Epstein are the only two listed passengers; on another, the only three passengers are Epstein, Trump, and then-20-year-old [name redacted]. ” The prosecutor added that “on two other flights, two of the passengers, respectively, were women who would be possible witnesses in a Maxwell case. ” The justice department has withheld the name of the 20-year-old passenger.

Photographs and named figures

Files released in the tranche also record other connections. The emails show that Epstein bragged to a reporter he had “gave” a woman he dated in 1993 to Trump two years later and sent photos of the woman, identified in the files as Norwegian cosmetics heiress Celina Midelfart, born in 1973, who dated Trump in the late 1990s. Midelfart was photographed with Epstein at Mar-a-Lago on 22 February 1997, the same night a now-famous photograph was taken of Trump with his hand on Epstein’s shoulder. The files and coverage also flagged Howard Lutnick; scrutiny of Howard Lutnick grew as a new photo showed him with Epstein.

Clinton’s House testimony and quotes

Bill Clinton told the committee he had “no idea” about Epstein’s crimes and described his relationship as a “brief acquaintance” that ended years before Epstein’s crimes came to light. In prepared remarks the former president said the girls and women whose lives Jeffrey Epstein destroyed “deserve not only justice, but healing, ” and that, though his acquaintance had ended years earlier and he “never witnessed during our limited interactions any indication of what was truly going on, ” he was offering what he knew to help prevent future harm. Clinton said he would “often” say, “I don’t recall, ” and accepted that those answers might be “unsatisfying” to lawmakers. He also said it was “simply not right” that Hillary Clinton was brought in for a six-hour-plus grilling.

Trump reaction and Lutnick comments

Donald Trump weighed in on Bill Clinton appearing before the committee and said, “I don’t like seeing him deposed. But they certainly went after me more than that. ” Kristen Holmes relayed that Trump told her commerce secretary Howard Lutnick, who has ties with Epstein, was a “very innocent guy” who is “doing a great job, ” and that he “would go in and do whatever he has to say. ”

Attack on Iran called 'brazen'

Separate coverage noted that characterized a preemptive strike on Tehran as “brazen. ” A live blog entry said: “A U. S. official told News that Israel is targeting Iranian leadership in its brazen morning attack against the regime, but the U. S. is setting its sights on military targets and ballistic missile sites that pose an ‘imminent threat. ’” The term “brazen” was described using Merriam-Webster’s sense of acting in a shocking, shameless or impudent way, often marked by bold, rude confidence.

Trump’s past Iran statements and recent orders

Coverage traced a string of past statements by Donald Trump about potential attacks on Iran. In November 2011 he said, “Our president will start a war with Iran because he has absolutely no ability to negotiate. ” He later wrote, “@BarackObama will attack Iran in order to get re-elected, ” in a post on X and then called Twitter the following January. He warned, “Now that Obama’s poll numbers are in tailspin—watch for him to launch a strike in Libya or Iran. He is desperate. ” He urged, “Don’t let Obama play the Iran card in order to start a war in order to get elected—be careful Republicans!” In September 2013 he said, “I predict that President Obama will at some point attack Iran in order to save face!” He repeated similar warnings about Obama launching an attack to “show how tough he is” and said, in November of another year, that he had long predicted Obama would attack Iran because of an inability to negotiate. Trump campaigned on “no new wars” during his 2024 presidential run. Yet coverage noted that as the strikes began, the president said on Saturday morning that Americans will likely die in this war and ordered: “To the members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, the armed forces, and all of the police, lay down your arms, or you will face certain death. ” The operation name cited in coverage was Operation Epic Fury.

Unclear in the provided context is the remainder of the excerpt from Jens Stoltenberg’s 2025 memoir mentioned at the end of one tranche.

Closing: The on-air exchange that featured McEnany’s incorrect assertion occurred while Bill Clinton gave testimony and was followed by document releases and email excerpts that show more extensive flight records for Donald Trump than McEnany stated, while parallel coverage described the Iran strikes as “brazen” and recorded recent and historical public statements by Trump on the subject.