Trump Blows Off Epstein Questions at Melania Event

Donald Trump has spent another day refusing to take questions about convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, this time at an event with the First Lady to protect vulnerable children.

Amid an ongoing firestorm over the Epstein files, the president appeared alongside Melania Trump on Thursday to sign an executive order to give young people vital new resources to help them transition out of the foster care system.

The “Fostering the Future” program was a passion project for the First Lady, who gave Trump “a special thank you” during her speech for “his enduring commitment” to foster care children.

WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 13: U.S. President Donald Trump, joined by first lady Melania Trump, members of his administration and foster care advocates, speaks before signing the "Fostering the Future" executive order in the East Room of the White House on November 13, 2025 in Washington, DC. The executive order, championed by first lady Melania Trump, works to expand opportunities for education, career development, housing and other resources for youth transitioning from foster care to adulthood. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images) — President Donald Trump, joined by first lady Melania Trump, members of his administration and foster care advocates, speaks before signing the “Fostering the Future” executive order. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

“Too many people from the foster care community end up homeless, in danger on America’s streets,” she said on Thursday.

But after signing the order together and posing for photos with guests, the first lady and the president, who is never shy of the cameras, quickly left the room, ignoring journalists as they shouted questions about Epstein or his victims.

Among those victims was Virginia Giuffre, who had spent years moving out of foster care homes as a child before she met Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, thinking they were “nice people” who could help her get her life back on track.

But as Giuffre told the BBC in 2019, she soon found herself being abused by the pair and “passed around like a platter of fruit” among Epstein’s high profile friends, including the now ex-prince Andrew.

Prince Andrew with Virginia Roberts Giuffre and Ghislaine Maxwell. — Prince Andrew rejected allegations he slept with an underage Virginia Guiffre and claimed a photo of the two of them was doctored. Virginia Roberts Giuffre/Fair Use

Thursday’s foster care event marked the second consecutive day that the President has avoided publicly discussing the Epstein scandal, which exploded back into the spotlight this week after bombshell emails revealed he may have known more about the sex offender’s conduct than he has acknowledged.

Trump also declined to take questions the night before, when he invited the press to an Oval Office signing ceremony officially ending the government shutdown.

At that event, the White House cut the live stream immediately after several reporters asked questions.

The response underscores the frustration within the White House that the Epstein saga continues to make headlines, five months after the Department of Justice issued a memo trying to kill the issue.

The emails this week were particularly explosive, revealing that Epstein mentioned Trump by name multiple times in private correspondence over the last 15 years.

One email claimed Trump “spent hours” at Epstein’s house with one of his victims, who has since been identified as Giuffre.

In another email, Epstein explicitly stated Trump “knew about the girls as he asked Ghislaine to stop”—a reference to Epstein’s accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, who recruited victims as part of his sex trafficking operation.

Trump and Epstein were once very good friends. Epstein died in 2019 while in jail on charges of sex trafficking minors. Davidoff Studios Photography/Getty Images

And another involves Epstein telling an associate that he was at Trump Tower five days after Trump’s 2016 election, appearing to undercut the president’s longstanding claim that he stopped talking to Epstein in the mid-2000s.

However, Trump insists the Epstein files are a Democratic hoax. His only comments about the matter so far have come in the form of a Truth Social post issued yesterday, when he warned Republicans not to get distracted by the scandal.

“The Democrats are trying to bring up the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax again because they’ll do anything at all to deflect on how badly they’ve done on the Shutdown, and so many other subjects,” he wrote.

“Only a very bad, or stupid, Republican would fall into that trap… There should be no deflections to Epstein or anything else, and any Republicans involved should be focused only on opening up our Country, and fixing the massive damage caused by the Democrats!”

The emails released this week form part of a trove of about 23,000 documents provided to the Oversight Committee by Epstein’s estate.

They date to at least 2011, when Trump was a reality TV star and contemplating a long-shot presidential run. At that time, Epstein was trying to rehabilitate his image after being convicted in Florida in 2008 for soliciting prostitution from a minor.

The disgraced financier eventually died in a Manhattan jail in 2019 while awaiting trial for more sex trafficking crimes. Maxwell was subsequently sentenced to 20 years for helping him recruit and abuse girls.

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