President Donald Trump said this week that Jeffrey Epstein “stole” young women from his Mar-a-Lago resort’s spa, including Virginia Giuffre, who was 16 at the time and later became a leading voice among Epstein’s accusers before dying by suicide earlier this year.
Trump’s comments, made Tuesday aboard Air Force One, provide his most comprehensive explanation to date of his falling out with the convicted sex offender.
“He took people that worked for me. And I told him, ‘Don’t do it anymore.’ And he did it,” Trump told reporters, confirming that the workers were young women from the spa. When asked specifically about Giuffre, Trump said, “I think she worked at the spa. I think so. I think that was one of the people, yeah. He stole her.”
According to her 2016 deposition testimony, Giuffre was employed as a spa attendant at Mar-a-Lago during the summer of 2000 at age 16. She said Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell approached her at the resort and hired her as Epstein’s masseuse, which led to years of sexual abuse and trafficking.
Related: Ghislaine Maxwell Seeks Conviction Reversal as Questions Mount Over Trump-Epstein Connections
Giuffre took her own life in April 2025 at age 41 in Western Australia, where she had been living. Her family said she “lost her life to suicide, after being a lifelong victim of sexual abuse and sex trafficking.”
The admission clarifies two things: that he had underage girls (or at least one, Giuffre) working at Mar-a-Lago, and that the reason for falling out with Epstein wasn’t that he liked girls “on the younger side” but because he poached his employees.
“He hired help, and I said, ‘Don’t ever do that again,'” he said.
The comments come amid ongoing controversy over the Trump administration’s handling of Jeffrey Epstein-related documents. The Justice Department announced this month it would not release additional files from the Epstein investigation, reversing earlier promises by administration officials.
Trump has faced rare criticism from some supporters over the handling of the case. He has called the continued focus on Epstein a “hoax” perpetrated by Democrats and said he no longer wants support from those demanding more transparency.
Epstein died by suicide in a Manhattan jail in August 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. Maxwell was convicted in 2021 and sentenced to 20 years in prison for helping Epstein sexually abuse underage girls.
Trump and Epstein were friends in the 1990s and early 2000s. In 2002, Trump called Epstein a “terrific guy” who “likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”
Related: Donald Trump “Liked Flicking And Sucking” In Latest Epstein List Dump
Flight logs show Trump, who also owned a plane, flew on Epstein’s private plane at least seven times. There is no evidence he visited Epstein’s private island, where much of the alleged abuse occurred.
The Wall Street Journal recently published a story about a 2003 birthday letter bearing Trump’s name that was allegedly submitted for Epstein’s 50th birthday celebration.
According to the Journal, the letter included “a lewd outline of a naked woman and an imagined conversation between Trump and Epstein” that concluded with “Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.”
Trump has denied writing the letter and filed a $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the Journal, its parent company, and the reporters involved.
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