President Donald Trump denied going to a notorious sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein‘s private island.
Speaking to reporters in Scotland on Monday, the president was asked about his relationship with the late Epstein and why the pair fell out in the mid-2000s. Trump called the squabble “such old history,” explaining that he gave Epstein the boot after he poached employees from Trump’s businesses.
“He hired help, and I said, ‘Don’t ever do that again.’ He stole people that worked for me,” Trump said. “He did it again, and I threw him out of the place. Persona non grata…that was it.”
Trump’s version of events runs counter to stories shared by the Washington Post and the White House. The Post reported in 2019 that Trump and Epstein’s friendship ended over a bidding war on a Palm Beach mansion. White House Communications Director Steven Cheung recently said Trump booted Epstein from Mar-a-Lago “for being a creep.”
Trump pivoted to the subject of Little Saint James, Epstein’s enclave in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Trump tossed out the names of former President Bill Clinton and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, saying they both took Epstein up on the offer to visit. The president added that such offers from Epstein were common in the Palm Beach community and that many “very big people” accepted a trip out to Epstein’s estate.
Trump: I never had the privilege of going to Epstein Island pic.twitter.com/4yngLg8fW5
— Acyn (@Acyn) July 28, 2025
“I never had the privilege of going to his island,” Trump said. “In one of my very good moments, I turned it down. I didn’t want to go to his island.”
The comments come on the same day that Vice President JD Vance boasted that Trump has “nothing to hide” about his relationship to Epstein.
“Trump has been incredibly transparent about that stuff, and some of the stuff takes time,” Vance told reporters. “He wants full transparency.”
