President Donald Trump said that convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein “stole” Virginia Giuffre from his Mar-a-Lago club, a stunning admission that could increase scrutiny of his relationship with the late financier — even as his administration seeks to change the subject from Epstein.
Trump was speaking to reporters on Tuesday when he was asked about comments he made over the weekend about falling out with Epstein because he took employees from his business.
“He took people that worked for me. And I told him, ‘Don’t do it anymore.’ And he did it,” Trump said, telling reporters that he barred Epstein from Mar-a-Lago.
“I said, ‘Stay the hell out of here,'” he said.
When pressed about whether any of the stolen employees were young women, Trump responded that many of them worked in the club’s spa.
“The answer is yes, they were in the spa,” he said. “I told him, I said, ‘Listen, we don’t want you taking our people, whether it was spa or not spa.’ … And he was fine. And then not too long after that, he did it again.”
Trump was then asked specifically if Epstein had stolen Giuffre, who was one of the financier’s most prominent abuse survivors and led the charge calling for his arrest. Giuffre, who died by suicide in April, has said she met Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell while working at Mar-a-Lago as a teenager.
“I think she worked at the spa,” Trump said. “I think so. I think that was one of the people. He stole her, and by the way, she had no complaints about us, as you know, none whatsoever.”
White House communications director Stephen Cheung said in a statement last week that Trump booted Epstein from Mar-a-Lago “for being a creep.”
Epstein died by suicide in a New York jail in 2019 while he was awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.
Trump and his administration have faced growing pressure in recent weeks, including from within his MAGA base, to release more files related to Epstein. The president, who previously shared conspiracy theories about Epstein, has sought to tamp down the scrutiny by saying that the story is “boring” and denouncing supporters focused on the issue.
