“Victims or Whatever”: Donald Trump Draws Fire Over Epstein

President Donald Trump continued his laissez-faire attitude towards survivors of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s alleged sexual assault as he looks to downplay the Epstein files, calling them “victims, or whatever.” 

On Thursday, while taking questions from reporters outside the White House, Trump was asked whether he believed there should be a public hearing for the reported Epstein survivors.

“Well, I’m ok with it. I think we’ve had a lot of, a couple of hearings. I’m ok with it, the president said, Raw Story reports. “But I understand that the women didn’t want to go under oath. That’s what I heard. That the women, the victims, or whatever, refuse to go under oath. Which is a little surprising,” 

Trump has tried to distance himself from the convicted sex trafficker, and despite several photos and thousands of mentions in the Epstein files, Trump continues to deny any wrongdoing. 

Raw Story notes that “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.’ The two were photographed together at parties throughout the 1990s.”

After Epstein’s arrest in 2019, Trump claimed that he was “not a fan” of the mysterious man whose wealth seemed to come from his connections to the extremely wealthy people in his circle. Trump claimed that the two had a fallout years before his arrest. Trump sued the Wall Street Journal for $10 billion over a report claiming that Trump wrote a “bawdy” letter he allegedly sent Epstein. The case was dismissed. 

In April 2026, Amanda Ungaro, a former friend of Melania’s, was going through a custody issue with Trump’s friend Paolo Zampolli. Ungaro claimed that Zampolli used his influence to have her deported back to Brazil. 

First lady Melania Trump recently issued a statement claiming that she had no connection to Epstein, adding that she was not a part of Epstein’s network.

See the ongoing reaction to Trump’s relation to the Epstein files below.