Word used by President Trump about Jeffrey Epstein causes online frenzy
As President Donald Trump continues to talk about his relationship with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, one word Trump used in particular stirred outrage online.
While meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Scotland on Monday, Trump took questions from reporters and was asked if he had ever visited Epstein’s island, Little St. James in the Virgin Islands. The island is where Epstein, a convicted sex offender, is suspected of sexually abusing girls under 18.
Trump repeatedly said he never went to the island and claimed former President Bill Clinton went to the island “supposedly 28 times.”
“I never had the privilege of going to his island, and I did turn it down, but a lot of people in Palm Beach were invited to his island,” Trump continued. ”In one of my very good moments, I turned it down. I didn’t want to go to his island.”
Trump’s use of the word “privilege” ignited social media, with critics slamming his use of the word in connection with the notorious island.
“Trump is burying himself #Trumpstein,” political commentator Keith Olbermann posted on X.
Religious and political commentator Hemant Mehta sarcastically reacted to Trump’s words. He wrote on X that it’s truly “a ‘privilege’ to get invited to Epstein Island.”
“Trump might not have had ‘the privilege’ of going to the island, but he didn’t mind hopping on Epstein’s private jet or partying with him,” NowThis Impact, a progressive social media page, stated while reacting to Trump’s remark in an X post .
In her own X post , political writer Sarah Burris kept her reaction brief: “Really? Privilege?”
Epstein’s name has been in the news in the weeks after the Department of Justice and the FBI released an unsigned memo stating that Epstein committed suicide in a Manhattan prison in 2019, despite conspiracy theories suggesting he was murdered, and that he did not have a client list with the names of high-profile people, supposedly including Clinton and Trump, on that list.
As Trump has continued to distance himself from Epstein, Attorney General Pam Bondi told Trump in May that his name was included in the Epstein files “multiple times,” the Wall Street Journal reported last week.
Trump also said he could pardon Epstein’s convicted associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence on sexual abuse charges. Maxwell’s name has come up as a bipartisan subcommittee of lawmakers on Capitol Hill is drafting a subpoena to the Justice Department to release more information that it has on Epstein.
As the parameters of the subpoena are drafted, Democrats are demanding that it be fulfilled within 30 days from when it is served to Bondi. They have also proposed a list of document demands, including the prosecutorial decisions surrounding Epstein, documents related to his death, and communication from any president or executive official regarding the matter.
Reporting from the Associated Press contributed to this story.
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