Donald Trump lamented that Andrew Mountbatten Windsor being stripped of his titles is a “terrible thing” while speaking to reporters on board Air Force One over the weekend.
The former prince’s titles were taken away by his brother, King Charles III, shortly after the publication of Virginia Giuffre’s posthumous memoir, Nobody’s Girl, which contained fresh allegations against Mountbatten-Windsor.
Trump, who has long battled with rumors about his own close relationship with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, described the British royal family scandal as “too bad.”
“I mean, it’s a terrible thing that’s happened to the family,” Trump bemoaned. “That’s been a tragic situation, and it’s too bad. I mean I feel badly for the family.”
Buckingham Palace announced that Queen Elizabeth II’s second son would lose his royal titles last week, in a statement that also confirmed that he was being forced out of his rent-free home, Royal Lodge.
“These censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him,” the statement read.
Trump’s comments came shortly after Giuffre’s brother, Sky Roberts, told CNN that Trump should follow in King Charles’s example by directly addressing the controversy. Roberts said that the president could do so by releasing the Department of Justice’s Epstein files.
“President Trump needs to put his big boy pants on and follow suit,” Roberts said. “We need to back our government in a corner where their hands are tied to this, and they have to come forward and do the right thing.”
Trump was photographed with Jeffrey Epstein numerous times over the years and was frequently seen partying with the disgraced financier. In 2002, Trump told New York Magazine that “Jeff” was a “terrific guy” who “likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”
The pair’s friendship reportedly collapsed in 2004, four years before Epstein was convicted of child sexual abuse, after the pedophile allegedly “stole” a member of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago staff. One of Trump’s former employees was Virginia Giuffre, who later alleged that she was trafficked to the United Kingdom to have sex with Andrew.
The scandal surrounding Andrew reached a boiling point after his disastrous interview with British journalist Emily Maitlis. During the awkward interview, he claimed that knowing Epstein had “some seriously beneficial outcomes” and, infamously, that he “didn’t sweat.”
He claimed that his inability to sweat contradicted Giuffre’s claim that he was “sweating profusely” when they allegedly met. Andrew continues to deny Giuffre’s claims, and Trump has not been accused of any wrongdoing.
Meanwhile, the president has continually downplayed the importance of the Epstein files, describing the “Epstein case” as a “Democrat HOAX.”
His administration has also floated the idea of giving Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s girlfriend, who was also convicted of child sex abuse, a pardon. Maxwell has claimed that Trump never engaged in inappropriate behavior with the girls trafficked by Epstein and even claimed that the photograph of herself and Mountbatten Windsor with Giuffre was a “fake photo.”
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However, Trump has been elusive about whether he will actually pardon Maxwell.
“You know, I haven't heard the name in so long,” he said. “I can say this, that I'd have to take a look at it. I would have to take a look.”
Even members of his own party are demanding that he release the classified documents, though, as splits continue to open in the GOP. Marjorie Taylor Green, one of Trump’s most loyal allies, was one of four House Republicans who signed a petition to force the release of the files.
“I’m committed to doing everything possible for the victims of Jeffrey Epstein,” she wrote on social media at the time. “Including exposing the cabal of rich and powerful elites that enabled this.”
She also hit out at the sitting president by saying that she was not a “blind slave” to him and that she does not think “anyone should be.”
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