Trump Blew Himself Up With New Revelation Epstein ‘Stole’ Sex Abuse Victim from Mar-a-Lago

(AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

President Donald Trump offered a new explanation this week for his decades-old friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, and in doing so, reignited a scandal he’s spent weeks trying to smother. It’s just the latest example of Trump’s shifting narrative on this growing scandal — which not only keeps it alive but also raises already deep skepticism from even his most loyal MAGA supporters.

During an Air Force One press gaggle Tuesday as he returned from Scotland, Trump was asked why he had once praised Epstein despite his now-well-documented crimes. The president told reporters that the disgraced financier had “stolen” Virginia Giuffre — a survivor of Epstein’s sex trafficking ring — from her job at Mar-a-Lago.

“I think she worked at the spa, I think so, I think that was one of the people,” Trump told reporters. Yeah, he stole her. And by the way, she had no complaints about us, none whatsoever.”

It was a grotesque and historically inconsistent revision. For one, Trump’s supposed falling-out with Epstein “around 2000” doesn’t match his own glowing description of Epstein in a 2002 New York Magazine profile, where he called him a “terrific guy” who “likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.” The two were seen together at social events in Palm Beach, well after Trump now claims they’d parted ways.

What’s more, Giuffre wasn’t simply a towel girl — she was a teenager who says she was recruited into Epstein’s abuse ring while working at Mar-a-Lago. Framing her as an employee Epstein “poached” is not just ahistorical, it’s cruel, particularly given she’s recently taken her own life, perhaps fueled by the swirling controversy.

And the president’s rhetorical pivot — one of many over the past several weeks — only underscores how Trump’s shifting narrative around Epstein has done nothing to bury the story. In fact, it’s done the opposite. It’s kept the scandal in the news, stirred louder questions, and, most strikingly, cracked the loyalty of even Trump’s most reflexively defensive supporters.

This saga really started in early June when Elon Musk posted on social media that “Trump is in the files. That’s why they won’t release them.” That message was later deleted — but still went viral — and a somewhat contrite Musk backpedaled on “some” of the anti-Trump invective he’d shared online, though he didn’t specify which.

It was then reignited in early July, when the Department of Justice issued a memo stating the Epstein investigation was closed. No smoking gun, no client list, no evidence of murder. Trump initially seized on it, chiding reporters for continuing to ask about the case, saying “it’s over, the DOJ said so.”

But when the press refused to stop inquiring, the then bizarrely pivoted to claim the whole thing was a “hoax drummed up by Democrats.” Within days, he ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to release sealed grand jury testimony, alleging a massive Obama-era conspiracy that failed to win over even his most loyal media surrogates on Fox News. Frankly, it just didn’t make any sense.

The contradictions kept piling up.

The Wall Street Journal and others reported he was personally told in May — by Bondi and Deputy AG Todd Blanche — that his name appeared multiple times in the investigative documents. It was also included in the so-called “Phase 1” release back in February. Days later, Trump insisted to the press he had not been briefed.

Meanwhile, Blanche met for nine hours last week with convicted sex criminal and Epstein confidante, Ghislaine Maxwell, under a limited immunity deal. According to ABC News, Maxwell provided names of roughly 100 individuals linked to Epstein’s operations. Her attorney, David Markus, has not ruled out asking for clemency.

All of which has the MAGA world on edge. Online forums once quick to dismiss Epstein revelations as deep-state chatter are now parsing timelines and calling out Trump’s contradictions. One top pro-Trump X account wrote: “If it’s all fake, why’d he say she was ‘stolen’? Why praise him in 2002?”

Trump doesn’t simply deny allegations — he replaces them with alternate fictions. But unlike previous scandals, this one touches something raw and unresolved in the public imagination.

Trump may think his shifting story protects him. Instead, it’s keeping the story alive — and turning up the volume on doubts he can’t seem to silence.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.