Epstein email said Trump was a bad person: ‘Not one decent cell in his body’

Claim:

In a 2017 email released by the House Oversight Committee in November 2025, convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein wrote, “I have met some very bad people. None as bad as Trump. Not one decent cell in his body.”

Rating:

In November 2025, social media posts claimed (archived here, here, here and here) that convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein said in a 2017 email that he hadn’t met anyone “as bad as [Donald] Trump,” adding that the U.S. president does not have “one decent cell in his body.”

According to the posts, the purported email from Epstein read, “I have met some very bad people. None as bad as Trump. Not one decent cell in his body.”

The rumor circulated online as the public continued to scrutinize more than 20,000 documents from the Epstein estate. The U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released the documents on Nov. 12, 2025. 

Snopes readers searched our website to confirm whether the email was legitimate. We verified its authenticity through an independent review of the released documents.

The email, along with thousands of other documents from the Epstein estate, is available to view in a Google folder provided by the committee in its news release (archived).

Epstein sent the email to Larry Summers several weeks after Trump’s first presidential inauguration. Summers, who was Treasury Secretary under President Bill Clinton, is also a former president of Harvard University and later served as a top economic adviser to President Barack Obama.

Below is the full email exchange between Epstein and Summers, reproduced in the order in which the messages were sent (emphasis ours): 

Feb. 6, 2017

EPSTEIN: speak today

SUMMERS: Yes. In NYC actually.

Feb. 7, 2017

EPSTEIN: your man of the people
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/02/07/president-barack-obama-kiteboards-horses-
around-richard-branson-epic-vacation/97592260/

Feb. 8, 2017

SUMMERS: It’s ok.

He didn’t wreck world and avoided scandal.

What does Ruemmler say re his attitude towards women?

EPSTEIN: recall ive told you ” i have met some very bad people ” none as bad as trump. not one decent cell in his body.. so yes- dangerous

The 2017 USA Today article (archived) that Epstein linked to in the email reported that Obama vacationed with his wife, Michelle Obama, in the British Virgin Islands, where he spent time with businessman Richard Branson and learned to kitesurf.

The mention of “Ruemmler” likely referred to Kathy Ruemmler, a top lawyer for Goldman Sachs and former White House counsel to Obama whose name appeared in other Epstein correspondence.

The full context of the email, including what prompted the message about Trump, remained unclear at the time of publication. Summers did not immediately respond to Snopes’ request for comment.

We reached out to the White House for comment on Epstein’s email about Trump but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt previously told Snopes that “Trump kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his club decades ago for being a creep to his female employees, including [Virginia] Giuffre.” She added: “These stories are nothing more than bad-faith efforts to distract from President Trump’s historic accomplishments, and any American with common sense sees right through this hoax and clear distraction from the government opening back up again.”

Summers scrutinized over Epstein connection

Summers announced on Nov. 19 that he would resign from the board of directors at OpenAI, which he joined in November 2023, amid scrutiny over his connection to Epstein, NBC News reported (archived).

Summers reportedly said in a statement: “In line with my announcement to step away from my public commitments, I have also decided to resign from the board of OpenAI. I am grateful for the opportunity to have served, excited about the potential of the company, and look forward to following their progress.”

Several days earlier, Summers said he would step back from public commitments while continuing to teach at Harvard, according to The Harvard Crimson (archived). He also began to leave other organizations where he held various roles, the student newspaper reported.

According to The Crimson, the released documents included seven years of correspondence between Summers and Epstein. The documents reportedly showed that the two continued to exchange messages until July 5, 2019 — one day before Epstein was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges.

In a statement provided to The Crimson, Summers wrote: “I have great regrets in my life. As I have said before, my association with Jeffrey Epstein was a major error of judgement.”

During their exchanges, Summers reportedly sought advice from Epstein (archived) while pursuing a romantic relationship with a woman he described as a mentee. In one November 2018 message, Epstein described himself as Summers’ “wing man,” The Crimson reported.

Snopes independently confirmed that the “wing man” email appeared in the released documents here. 

In the message dated Nov. 30, 2018, Epstein wrote:

im a pretty good wing man , no? anymore, how great larry is comments and i would have 
had to barf. great fun 

For further reading, Snopes has fact-checked multiple claims related to the latest Epstein documents drop, including whether the late disgraced financier alleged in an email that Trump “knew about the girls.”