2:13Donald Trump speaks to reporters near the Rose Garden after returning to the White House on Marine One on July 29, 2025 in Washington, DC.Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
This week, President Donald Trump elaborated on his connection with accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, but his statements raise further inquiries about the timeline of their falling out and the reasons behind it.
On Monday, Trump asserted that his association with Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial for trafficking underage girls and women, deteriorated because Epstein took some employees despite Trump’s explicit warnings against such actions.
On Tuesday, Trump further claimed that Epstein "stole" young women employed at the spa in his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. "People were taken from the spa, hired by him. In other words, they were gone," Trump informed reporters aboard Air Force One.
One of those individuals, Trump mentioned, was Virginia Giuffre, an accuser of Epstein who alleged she was recruited by his associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, when Giuffre was a minor working as a locker-room attendant at Mar-a-Lago in 2000. Maxwell, who has been convicted of sex trafficking minors and is currently serving a 20-year prison term, has refuted the allegations. Giuffre died by suicide this past April at the age of 41.
"I’m not certain. I believe she worked at the spa; I think that was one of the people," Trump initially stated when questioned about Giuffre before continuing more assertively, "Yes, he took her. And by the way, she had no issues with us, none at all."
Donald Trump speaks to reporters near the Rose Garden after returning to the White House on Marine One on July 29, 2025 in Washington, DC.Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
According to Social Security documentation presented in court during Giuffre’s defamation lawsuit against Ghislaine Maxwell, Giuffre was employed at Mar-a-Lago Club LLC in 2000 and earned $1,866.50 that year. The specifics of her employment duration at Trump’s club remained contested when the lawsuit concluded in 2017.
Giuffre, then known as Virginia Roberts, subsequently traveled extensively around the globe with Epstein and Maxwell over the following two years, according to flight logs maintained by one of Epstein’s pilots, which have been submitted into court records for civil and criminal proceedings.
Trump’s remarks followed the White House’s statement last week, which indicated Epstein was banned from Mar-a-Lago for being a "creep."
When questioned about the inconsistency between the White House’s explanation for his separation from Epstein and his assertion that it was due to Epstein taking his staff, Trump stated on Tuesday, "it’s kind of a little bit of the same thing."
As he informed reporters about Epstein’s poaching of young female employees, Trump remarked, "people would come and complain, ‘this guy is taking staff from the spa.’ I was unaware of that."
"And then when I learned about it, I told him, I said, ‘Listen, we don’t want you taking our people, whether from the spa or elsewhere. I don’t want him taking anyone. He was fine. But then shortly after that, he did it again, and I said, ‘Get out of here,’" Trump explained.
Donald Trump walks across the South Lawn of the White House after returning on Marine One on July 29, 2025 in Washington, DC.Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
However, earlier statements from Trump indicated that his break with Epstein occurred several years later than he now claims.
In 2002, Trump commended Epstein in a profile published in New York magazine about the now-deceased financier
Sourse: abcnews.go.com
