Trump says Epstein 'stole' Virginia Giuffre, a heartless and revealing admission
President Donald Trump has a new explanation for why he ended his long friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The story now involves Epstein stealing away Mar-a-Lago spa employees, an apparently unforgivable sin.
On July 29, aboard Air Force One, Trump was asked more about this employee stealing, and he flashed his true colors, instantly making the spiraling Epstein scandal measurably worse. Without a hint of empathy or compassion, the president said Epstein 'stole' a teenage Mar-a-Lago spa worker named Virginia Giuffre.
Trump used that word: stole. As if Giuffre, who would become one of the most public of Epstein's victims, was a piece of property wrongly poached by the notorious sex trafficker.
She was 16 at the time she was lured away from Mar-a-Lago by Epstein and his partner Ghislaine Maxwell. She would later say she was 'passed around like a platter of fruit' to rich, powerful men in Epstein's circles.
Trump speaks of Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre like she's property
Giuffre died by suicide only three months ago, having lived much of her life as an advocate for survivors of sex trafficking.
And this is how Trump spoke about her when asked if she was one of the Mar-a-Lago workers drawn away by Epstein: 'I think she worked at the spa. I think so. I think that was one of the people. He stole her. And by the way, she had no complaints about us, none whatsoever.'
He stole her. And, of course, she never said anything bad about Trump or his precious resort. That's how this soulless person speaks about a teenager who wound up in a life of hell, trafficked like a piece of property. Treated, just as Trump describes her, like a thing. A thing that can be stolen.
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When has Trump ever expressed true empathy for Epstein's victims?
At no point in the unfolding Epstein scandal has Trump focused on the young victims of these heinous criminals. Trump's own Justice Department, in a statement, 'confirmed that Epstein harmed over one thousand victims' and that each 'suffered unique trauma.'
The president has shown no concern for anything other than protecting himself.
Trump speaks of Epstein and his victims while plugging his resort's spa
Right before making his comment about Giuffre, Trump created a new reason why he broke off his lengthy friendship with Epstein, saying it was all about employee poaching. This is how he described it: 'People that worked in the spa – I have a great spa, one of the best spas in the world at Mar-a-Lago – and people were taken out of the spa, hired by him, in other words, gone. And other people would come and complain, 'This guy is taking people from the spa.''
In talking about a convicted sex offender recruiting teenagers who would go on to be raped and abused, Trump is hailing the greatness of his resort's spa. He is hanging his dislike of Epstein on the inconvenience it caused his company.
Opinion: Epstein accomplice Maxwell angles for a Trump pardon. Would she lie to help him?
The way Trump spoke about Giuffre is a big part of the problem
I don't know the extent of Trump's involvement with Epstein, and I don't know how far this rapidly accelerating scandal will go or what political damage it will do to him.
But I do know that claiming a 16-year-old girl who fell into the hands of sex traffickers was stolen from you is the kind of thinking that makes sex trafficking possible. Giuffre, from all I can tell, was not a human being to Trump. She was a piece of property wrongfully taken away by Epstein.
Opinion: MAGA is realizing Trump lies. How can they trust anything he says on Epstein?
Epstein and Maxwell treated the girls and young women they groomed to have sex with powerful predators as nothing more than property. Objects.
Trump's callousness is part of why the Epstein scandal goes on
This scandal exists in good part because the idea of treating children as sex objects disgusts people across the political spectrum.
Based on the way he talks about, it doesn't disgust Donald Trump. It annoys him. It's less a grotesque tragedy and more an inconvenience.
Epstein 'stole' Giuffre from Trump. And now that's stealing the spotlight, the only thing our callous president seems to actually care about.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @rexhuppke.bsky.social and on Facebook at facebook.com/RexIsAJerk
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