(NewsNation) — President Donald Trump stopped speaking with Jeffrey Epstein after he poached workers from the then-real estate tycoon, Trump revealed during a Monday meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
“For years, I wouldn’t talk to Jeffrey Epstein. I wouldn’t talk because he did something that was inappropriate,” Trump told reporters.
“He hired help. And I said, ‘Don’t ever do that again,'” he continued. “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 persona non grata.”
Trump and Epstein ran in the same high-profile circles for decades. From the 1980s to the 2000s, the pair were in the same elite circle and were photographed together at events.
When addressing their fracture in the mid-2000s, Trump told reporters on Monday: “I’m glad I did, if you want to know the truth.”
Trump on Epstein birthday card: ‘I don’t do drawings of women’
Trump reportedly left Epstein a birthday message in 2003 mentioning that they have “certain things in common,” the Wall Street Journal reported. The note — part of a larger book of notes from friends and acquaintances — was typewritten inside a drawing of a naked woman’s outline.
“A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret,” the note ends.
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Portrait of American financier Jeffrey Epstein (left) and real estate developer Donald Trump as they pose together at the Mar-a-Lago estate, Palm Beach, Florida, 1997.(Photo by Davidoff Studios/Getty Images) -
From left, American real estate developer Donald Trump and his girlfriend (and future wife), former model Melania Knauss, financier (and future convicted sex offender) Jeffrey Epstein, and British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell pose together at the Mar-a-Lago club, Palm Beach, Florida, February 12, 2000. (Photo by Davidoff Studios/Getty Images) -
Businessman Donald Trump and financier Jeffrey Epstein attend a Victoria’s Secret Angels event sponsored by Rogers & Cowan at the club Duvet on 21st Street in New York City, New York on April 9, 1997. (Photo by Thomas Concordia/Getty Images) -
American businessman and ex-president Donald Trump, Belgian model Ingrid Seynhaeve, and American businessman Jeffrey Epstein attend the Victoria’s Secret “Angels” party on April 28, 1997 in New York City. (Sonia Moskowitz/Getty Images). -
Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) holds up a photo of Jeffery Epstein and former President Trump during a House Oversight Committee markup on Wednesday, January 10, 2024 as they consider a resolution to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena last month.
On Monday, Trump addressed the alleged note, which he has since filed a $10 billion libel lawsuit over.
“I’m not a drawing person. I don’t do drawings of women that I can tell you, they say there’s a drawing of a woman, and I don’t do drawings of women,” he said.
The president also added that he never went to Epstein’s private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands, which he touted as one of “my very good moments.”
Flight logs released as evidence in the case against Epstein’s longtime associate, Maxwell, show that Trump flew on the financier’s private jet seven times between 1993 and 1997 — but never to the island.
Ghislaine Maxwell pardon ‘inappropriate’ to discuss, says Trump
When asked whether he would pardon longtime Epstein associate and convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, Trump on Monday said he has not discussed it with anyone.
“I’m allowed to give her a pardon. No one has approached me with it. No one has asked me about it,” Trump said. “It’s in the news. Right now it would be inappropriate to talk about it.”
The Department of Justice last week interviewed Maxwell. Her attorney, David Oscar Markus, told NewsNation on Friday that her team was “very grateful” for the opportunity.
“She didn’t say, ‘Don’t ask me about that. I am not going to talk about this person.’ She was asked about maybe 100 different people,” he said. “She answered questions about everybody, and she didn’t hold anything back.”
Her case — and Epstein’s — have been under the spotlight amid calls to release more of the government’s files on Epstein.
