Donald Trump explains the real reason he fell out with Jeffrey Epstein

Donald Trump told reporters he'd "never had the privilege" of visiting Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking island.

During a Q&A alongside Keir Starmer, the US President suggested anything in the FBI investigation files that looked bad for him would be "phony" and added to the files by his enemies.

And he addressed for the first time what caused him to fall out with America’s most notorious paedophile - suggesting the bust-up had been caused by Epstein poaching his staff.

"It's a hoax," Trump said of the FBI files from the investigation into Epstein’s crimes, which many of the President’s most ardent supporters continue to demand he release.

"Those files were run by the worst scum on Earth. They were run by [former Attorney General Merrick] Garland, [former FBI Director James] Comey… They can easily put something in the files that's a phony."

And he suggested that if anything in the files were incriminating to him, his opponents would have released them during the election campaign last year.

He said he had “never had the privilege” of visiting Epstein Island - but added that he had not been invited.

Addressing claims that he was behind a birthday note to Epstein featuring a drawing of a naked woman in the early 2000s, Trump said: "I don't do drawings. I'm not a drawing person."

He did however accept that he had, on occasion, made drawings of buildings to donate to charity.

Trump and Epstein were friends and often photographed together in the 90s and early 00s - but their relationship broke down, something that had previously reported to have been sparked by a property deal.

But Trump last night indicated they had fallen out because Epstein had poached workers from him.

"For years I wouldn't talk to Jeffrey Epstein," he said. "He did something that was inappropriate. He hired help and I said don't ever do that again. He stole people that worked for me."

Virginia Giuffre was working for Donald Trump at Mar A Lago in 2000 when she was recruited by Maxwell to be a “masseuse” for Epstein.

She was 16. She later recounted how she was groomed by Epstein and Maxwell to provide sexual services for the billionaire and his associates.

Ms Giuffre died by suicide in April 2025.

READ MORE: How Donald Trump turned the White House into a tacky gold palace full of trinkets in 100 days

Asked whether he would give a pardon to Epstein's fixer, Ghislaine Maxwell, Trump said: "I'm allowed to give her a pardon. Nobody's asked for one. But right now it would be inappropriate to talk about it."

Maxwell is currently serving 20 years in prison on sex trafficking charges relating to Epstein.

Last week she met with Trump’s Deputy Attorney General - formerly his personal lawyer - Todd Blanche, and was given conditional immunity to provide more evidence.

Nothing Maxwell told Blanche has so far been revealed.