WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump has offered a new explanation for the end of his friendship with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, claiming their falling-out was caused by Epstein “stealing” employees—including one of his most well-known accusers, Virginia Giuffre—from the president’s Mar-a-Lago club.
The remarks, however, have come under immediate and intense scrutiny, as the president’s timeline appears to directly contradict his own past statements and a well-documented history of his continued association with Epstein long after Giuffre was recruited from Mar-a-Lago.
The controversy adds another volatile layer to the political firestorm surrounding the Epstein case, which has roiled the administration for weeks. The president’s new narrative is being viewed as his latest attempt to distance himself from the convicted sex offender at a time when his own supporters are in open revolt over the Justice Department’s refusal to release more records from the investigation.
Speaking to a reporter aboard Air Force One on Tuesday, Trump confirmed that Giuffre, who died by suicide in April, was among the workers poached by Epstein from the spa at his Palm Beach club.
“I think that was one of the people, yeah. He stole her,” Trump said. “And by the way, she had no complaints about us, as you know. None whatsoever.”
The president first floated this explanation on Monday, stating, “For years I wouldn’t talk to Jeffrey Epstein. I wouldn’t talk because he did something that was inappropriate. He hired help, and I said don’t ever do that again. He stole people that worked for me. I said don’t ever do that again. He did it again, and I threw him out of the place.”
This account, however, is at odds with the established timeline of events. Virginia Giuffre stated in a 2016 deposition that she was working as a 16-year-old at Mar-a-Lago in the summer of 2000 when Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s accomplice, recruited her into Epstein’s sex trafficking operation.
Yet, years after this supposed friendship-ending incident, Trump continued to speak highly of Epstein. In a now-infamous profile of Epstein published in New York magazine in October 2002—more than two years after Giuffre was “stolen” from his club—Trump offered a glowing endorsement.
“I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,” Trump was quoted as saying. “He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”
Furthermore, the controversy over a sexually suggestive letter, allegedly sent from Trump to Epstein for his 50th birthday in 2003, also contradicts the president’s new timeline. Trump has vehemently denied writing the letter and is now suing The Wall Street Journal for defamation over its report.
Previously, the falling-out between the two men had been attributed to other events. Reporting by The Washington Post and others has indicated that public sightings of Trump and Epstein ended in 2004 after their relationship fractured over a competing real estate deal for a Palm Beach mansion.
According to the 2020 book “The Grifter’s Club,” Epstein was not formally banned from Mar-a-Lago until 2007, after he allegedly hit on the teenage daughter of another club member. The book states that Epstein remained on the club’s membership rolls until October of that year, a full year after his first arrest in Florida.
The White House had recently offered yet another reason for the split. “The fact is that the President kicked him out of his club for being a creep,” White House communications director Steven Cheung told Newsweek last week.
The president’s shifting explanations come as he struggles to contain the political damage from his administration’s handling of the Epstein files. The Justice Department’s decision not to release more records, despite previous promises of transparency from Attorney General Pam Bondi, has angered many of Trump’s supporters who believe the files could expose a cover-up. The president has attempted to tamp down the issue, but his new, inconsistent narrative is likely to ensure that he will continue to face questions about the true timing and nature of his long and controversial relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
