The White House is pushing back on reports that President Donald Trump has been lashing out at Jeffrey Epstein’s sex abuse victims behind closed doors.
Sources told Rolling Stone that Trump has repeatedly criticized victims and their families as they publicly pressure him to release the so-called “Epstein files”—even as his administration ramps up efforts to bury the scandal.
Trump, who was close friends with Epstein for more than a decade, reportedly told members of his inner circle that the convicted sex offender’s accusers are just trying to make him look bad—or imply he did something wrong. At times, according to the report, Trump even accused the victims of colluding with Democrats.
“None of this is true,” a White House official said in response to a request for comment. “Just another desperate attempt by the failing Rolling Stone.”
But Rolling Stone reporter Asawin Suebsaeng, who co-authored the story with Nikki McCann Ramirez, pushed back during an appearance Thursday night on MSNBC’s All In With Chris Hayes, telling guest host Antonia Hylton that their reporting was based on sources “in and out of the Trump administration.”
“One of the things that got us onto reporting this out is that public facing, Trump is often very garrulous in how he insults his enemies, big and small, who come after him or who he feels like they’re coming after him, especially when he’s sitting as leader of the free world,” Suebsaeng said.
“But for some reason, he was conspicuously silent about these families and these individual accusers.”
He added that once they began digging, sources confirmed that Trump has been “getting really, really annoyed in recent weeks” with Epstein’s victims—and even accused them of being Democratic operatives.
“When it comes to the character and politicking of Donald Trump,” Suebsaeng added, “sadly par for the course.”
The latest controversy comes as the White House is also firing warning shots at members of their own party.
The controversy comes as the White House is also taking aim at members of its own party. On Thursday, Trump sent a thinly veiled warning to Rep. Thomas Massie, who has partnered with Rep. Ro Khanna in a bipartisan push to force a House vote on releasing documents from the Epstein investigation.
On Thursday night, Trump posted screenshots on Truth Social of a polling report that found the lawmaker’s break with Trump has made him susceptible to a primary challenger.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
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