President Trump said Monday he turned down an offer to go to deceased financier Jeffrey Epstein’s private island, calling out other people he said the press should be focused on as the president has tried to move on from questions on Epstein.
“I never went to the island and [former president] Bill Clinton went there supposedly 28 times. I never went to the island but [former Treasury Secretary] Larry Summers, I hear, went there, he was the head of Harvard. And many other people that are very big people, nobody ever talks about them,” Trump said while in Scotland meeting with U.K. Prime Minister Kier Starmer.
He added, “I never had the privilege of going to his island and I did turn him down. But a lot of people in Palm Beach were invited to his island. In one of my very good moments, I turned it down. I didn’t want to go to his island.”
The president was asked why he had thrown Epstein out of his Mar-a-Lago resort, and he said he didn’t want to “waste your time” by explaining the story from years ago.
“For years, I wouldn’t talk to Jeffrey Epstein… because he did something that was inappropriate. He hired help,” he said.
“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,” Trump added.
The president also pushed back on reports that he had a closer than previously known relationship with Epstein, addressing a Wall Street Journal report that he sent Epstein a letter for his 50th birthday that included a message inside the outline of a naked woman.
“I don’t do drawings of women,” Trump said.
“And also, Epstein was also a very controversial guy. I was at a very high position, you know, pretty much all my life … who would do a controversial drawing?” Trump added. “Now with that being said they say there were many letters done by many people.”
The president punted again when asked about a pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime Epstein associate who spoke with the Department of Justice last week.
“I’m allowed to give her a pardon,” Trump said. “Nobody’s approached me with it, nobody’s asked me about it. It’s in the news, about that, that aspect of it. But right now it would be inappropriate to talk about it.”
Trump on Friday that he hadn’t thought about pardoning Maxwell, and also called on reporters to focus on other Epstein associates and other topics.
Brett Samuels contributed to this report.
