Epstein's 'rape island' purchase tied by MS NOW panel to Trump's Greenland obsession
Jeffrey Epstein in an undated photo released by the Department of Justice on Dec. 19, 2025. (DOJ)
January 21, 2026
A report from the Rupert Murdoch-owned New York Post on how it came to be that convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein was able to purchase his island retreat was tied to Donald Trump’s desire to buy Greenland on Wednesday morning.
That led to “Morning Joe" co-host Joe Scarborough to go on a sarcastic attack on Donald Trump for his ties to Epstein’s “rape island” and his Greenland push that is creating an international “rupture” with the U.S.
According to the Post’s report, “The last time the United States purchased land from Denmark, the sale included Jeffrey Epstein’s future notorious island,” adding, “The 1917 Treaty of the Danish West Indies saw what is now known as the US Virgin Islands bought by the United States for $25 million (roughly $633 million today), in exchange for, in part, accepting Danish sovereignty over Greenland.”
That, in turn, eventually led to Epstein, a longtime friend of the president, to purchase his now notorious 70-acre island in 1998.
The MS NOW host pounced on what he jokingly called the “circle of scandal.”
“Wait, wait, wait, hold, hold, hold, hold, so you're saying that actually the Danish have rights to Greenland today? the host joked. “In a large part because the United States recognized that right after a part of islands, which contained Jeffrey Epstein's rape island was part of that deal?”
“They haven't released all those files yet,” co-host Mika Brzezinski interjected.
“We are also bringing up the fact that rape island, which was a part of Saint Thomas, was part of the deal in 1917, where the United States said, you're going to have Saint Thomas and a couple of other islands that used to be called the Danish West Indies in exchange for Greenland,” he elaborated. "So there you go, Willy [Geist]. A perfect circle, a perfect, it's what in The Lion King? What did they call it? The circle of life? It’s the circle of scandal.”