WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Monday that he ended his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein and threw the now-disgraced financier out of his private club in Florida after Epstein betrayed him more than once by hiring people who had worked for him.
Trump did not say what his employees did or where they worked, and the White House declined further comment. But the White House had previously offered a different explanation for the falling-out. Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, said in a statement last week: “The fact is that the President kicked him out of his club for being a creep.”
Epstein killed himself, authorities say, in a New York jail cell in 2019 as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges. Trump and his top allies stoked conspiracy theories about Epstein’s death before Trump returned to power. They are now struggling to manage the fallout after the Justice Department said Epstein did, in fact, die by suicide and that it would not release additional documents about the case.
The president and his allies, some of whom are now in the administration, had promised to release the files.
The case has dogged Trump at home and abroad and even followed Vice President JD Vance during an appearance in his home state of Ohio on Monday. A small group of protesters assembled outside a factory in Canton that Vance toured, holding signs that spelled out “JD Protects Pedophiles” and indicating that “GOP” stands for “Guardians Of Pedophiles.”
The Republican president spoke at his golf property in Turnberry, Scotland, as he sat with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer after the leaders had met and were answering questions from U.S. and U.K. journalists. Asked to explain why the relationship had faltered, Trump said, “That's such old history, very easy to explain, but I don't want to waste your time by explaining it.”
He then explained, saying he stopped talking to Epstein after “he did something that was inappropriate.”
“He hired help and I said, ‘Don’t ever do that again,’” Trump said. “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.”
“I threw him out and that was it. I’m glad I did, if you want to know the truth,” Trump added.
Trump recently directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to seek the public release of sealed grand jury transcripts in the case. One federal judge has denied that request; a second judge has yet to rule.
Vance on Monday visited the factory to promote Trump's tax cut and border bill, but also addressed the Epstein matter, saying the president wants “full transparency” in the case.
“The president has been very clear. We're not shielding anything,” Vance said in response to a reporter's question. “The president has directed the attorney general to release all credible information and, frankly, to go and find additional credible information related to the Jeffrey Epstein case.”
“Some of that stuff takes time,” Vance said, adding that Trump has been “very clear. He wants full transparency.”
Trump had said back in 2019 that Epstein was a fixture in Palm Beach but that the two had had a falling-out a long time ago and he hadn't spoken with Epstein for 15 years.
Trump on Monday also denied contributing to a compilation of letters and drawings to mark Epstein's 50th birthday, first reported on by the Wall Street Journal. The newspaper said the letter, believed to be from Trump, included a drawing of a woman's body.
“I'm not a drawing person,” Trump said. “I don't do drawings of women, that I can tell you.”
Trump also said he declined Epstein's invitation to visit a private island the financier owned.
“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 said. “In one of my very good moments, I turned it down. I didn't want to go to his island.”
Associated Press writer Julie Carr Smyth in Canton, Ohio, contributed to this report.
A photograph of US President Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein is displayed on the side of a van in Aberdeen city centre, during US President Donald Trump's five-day private trip to Scotland, Monday, July 28, 2025. (Jane Barlow/PA via AP)
U.S. President Donald Trump talks to the media as he meets with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at Trump Turnberry golf club in Turnberry, Scotland, Monday, July 28, 2025. (Christopher Furlong/Pool Photo via AP)
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Yaxzodara Lozada woke up Monday freezing after sleeping on the sidewalk outside a prison in Venezuela’s capital, hoping her husband, a police officer who was detained on Nov. 17, will walk free as part of a goodwill effort the government announced last week.
While Venezuelan commerce and daily life have begun to resume — with malls, schools and gyms reopening a week after a stunning U.S. attack led to the arrest of President Nicolás Maduro — the promised release of imprisoned opposition figures, civil society leaders and journalists has materialized only in a trickle, prompting criticism.
Relatives of many of the more than 800 people that human rights organizations say are imprisoned in Venezuela for political reasons began gathering outside prisons Thursday, when the government of acting President Delcy Rodríguez pledged to free a significant number of prisoners in what it described as a gesture to “seek peace.” Officials have not identified or given a number of prisoners being considered for release, leaving rights groups scouring for hints of information and families to wait anxiously.
As of Monday afternoon, the Venezuelan advocacy group Foro Penal had verified the release of 49 prisoners. Among those confirmed freed were several foreign nationals holding Italian, Spanish, Argentine, Israeli and Colombian citizenship.
Also on Monday, the White House confirmed that Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado is set to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday.
Over the weekend, Trump said the releases came at Washington’s request.
“Venezuela has started the process, in a BIG WAY, of releasing their political prisoners,” Trump wrote Saturday on his Truth Social platform.
Others criticized the government for not fulfilling its promise of releasing a significant number of people.
On Monday, the U.N.-backed fact-finding mission on Venezuela welcomed the release of prisoners, but said in a statement that the amount of people released in recent days “falls far short” of the wider demand for the “immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners.”
Lozada said she had not seen her husband since he was detained on Nov. 17 — an arrest for which she says no reason was ever given.
Next to her, relatives of other detainees stretched and looked for water after spending the night on the ground, using old couch cushions and pieces of foam. In front of them, cars kept going by to drop off students at a school adjacent to the prison.
“These are two realities. They want the world to see that everything is normal, that nothing happened here,” said Jenny Quiroz, whose husband was detained Nov. 26 at his pharmacy in Caracas for allegedly criticizing the government in a WhatsApp group. “But it’s a mixture of anguish, despair…. You know what it’s like to have 48 days without knowing if he eats, if they have him isolated, if they are psychologically or physically torturing him?”
Quiroz said she wanted Trump to know that the information he is receiving regarding prison releases “is not 100% true.”
As relatives awaited news of their loved ones at prisons, the government deployed security forces to public schools around the country for the first day of classes since the holiday break. Uniformed students walked the streets of Caracas some alone and others accompanied by adults.
The Venezuelan government has tried to push forward a message of normalcy after the U.S. military operation that rocked the nation.
During a school tour broadcast on state television, acting President Rodríguez — surrounded by children — railed against the Trump administration while simultaneously striking an optimistic tone about the country’s future. She said her country is “actively resisting” the U.S. while “we’re writing a new page in Venezuelan history."
While teachers braced for questions from students about the Jan. 3 attack, preschool teacher Ángela Ramírez said the topic did not come up in her classroom.
“I didn’t address it because I didn’t notice the interest and a need in them to know what’s going on,” she said. “They are happy to be back at school."
Associated Press writer Megan Janetsky contributed from Mexico City.
Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
A photo of Edilson Torres, a Venezuelan police officer who died in prison a month after being arrested on accusations of treason, and his family adorns his coffin during his wake at his home in Guanare, Venezuela, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
Emelyn Torres and Maria Cristina Fernandez, the sister and grandmother of Edilson Torres, a Venezuelan police officer who died in prison after being detained on accusations of treason, embrace during his wake at his home in Guanare, Venezuela, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
Flor Zambrano, whose son, Rene Chourio, she says is detained at Zone 7 of the Bolivarian National Police for political reasons, embraces relatives of other detainees outside the facility in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
A man sits on steps decorated with a mural representing the eyes of late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Children return to school after the holiday break in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Flor Zambrano, whose son, Rene Chourio, she says is detained at Zone 7 of the Bolivarian National Police for political reasons, embraces relatives of other detainees outside the facility in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Relatives of political detainees wait outside Zone 7 of the Bolivarian National Police after spending the night there in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
Relatives wait outside Zone 7 of the Bolivarian National Police, where political detainees are held, after spending the night there in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
