Donald Trump has said he did not know the UK’s former top man in Washington Peter Mandelson when asked about his sacking over links to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
The peer was fired as the UK’s ambassador to the US by Sir Keir Starmer last week when the extent of his friendship with the US financier was revealed.
There had been concerns the issue could cast a shadow on the US president’s second state visit to the UK, not least because Mr Trump was also close to Epstein, although they fell out before his conviction in 2009.
Mr Trump said “I don’t know him actually” when asked at a joint press conference with the UK prime minister whether he had sympathy with Mandelson for being sacked over historic links to the sex offender.
He continued: “I had heard that and I think maybe the Prime Minister would be better speaking of that. It was a choice that he made and I don’t know.”
Turning to Mr Starmer, Mr Trump asked: “What is your answer to that?”
The prime minister said: “Well, I mean, it’s very straightforward. Some information came to light last week which wasn’t available when he was appointed. And I made a decision about it, and that’s very clear.”
Mr Starmer will have been relieved to avoid further awkwardness over the matter with only one question on Epstein in the news conference at Chequers.
The American leader’s disowning of the ex-ambassador comes despite Mandelson joining him at the White House when Mr Trump announced the US-UK trade deal in May.
The pair were pictured smiling and shaking hands in the Oval Office.
Mandelson’s departure left the UK government hosting Mr Trump’s state visit without a US ambassador, with James Roscoe, the UK’s charge d’affaires in Washington, stepping up in the meantime.
Mandelson was said to have been instrumental in organising the presidential visit.
His sacking last Thursday followed the emergence of emails in which he told Epstein to “fight for early release” shortly before he was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
He is also reported to have told Epstein “I think the world of you” the day before the disgraced financier began his sentence for soliciting prostitution from a minor in June 2008.
Mr Trump continues to deny being the author of a sexually suggestive letter in Epstein’s 50th birthday book in 2003.
Epstein died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while facing sex trafficking charges.
