President Donald Trump appeared for a sit-down press conference with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer at Trump’s golf course in Scotland on Monday. And to call it odd would be an understatement, as Trump talked about a wide range of uncomfortable topics, from Jeffrey Epstein to whether Truth Social is being censored in the UK.
The UK’s new Online Safety Act was passed in 2023 but came into full effect on July 25 when social media sites like Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram were required to start verifying the age of users. Truth Social is also impacted by the law, which prompted a reporter to ask Trump about whether his site was being “censored” in the UK.
“Well, I don’t think he’s going to censor my site, because I say only good things… will you please uncensor my site?” Trump said jokingly. It seems clear Trump had no idea about the law and thinks that it’s normal for the leader of a given country to censor criticism based on their whims on a given day. That’s been a recurring theme during Trump’s presidency, obviously, as he rails against U.S. broadcast networks and just this past weekend said the FCC should pull broadcast licenses for TV channels he accused of being “political pawns of the Democrat Party.”
Prime Minister Starmer took issue with the characterization that anyone was being censored by the newly enacted law, Trump or otherwise. Starmer first brought up the encouragement of suicide in young people, which had been one reason some in the UK have pushed for the law.
“When you look through their social media, they’ve been accessing sites which talk about suicide and encouraging, if you like, children down that road. That is what we want to stop,” Starmer said. “Nothing about censoring free speech. This country is the proud… Free speech in this country has been for a very long time. We’re very, very proud of it. We will protect it forever.”
Trump chimed in to talk about how First Lady Melania Trump had advocated for an anti-bullying law called the Take It Down Act. But the president then quickly pivoted to ribbing Starmer again about any potential censorship of Truth Social.
“I only say good things about him and his country,” Trump continued. “So they say to me, you’re making a mistake. I’m gonna give my ambassador the job, make sure it’s not censored. I had not heard that.”
But the pair didn’t just chat about online censorship. Trump was asked about Jeffrey Epstein, the late sex offender who died in jail back in 2019. The president was asked about his falling out with Epstein, since there have been a couple of different theories floated about why the two men stopped being friends after about 15 years. Some defenders of the president insist Epstein was kicked out of Mar-a-Lago because he hit on a member’s daughter. But Epstein and Trump also reportedly fought over the purchase of a property, something that apparently soured the relationship. Trump, however, seemed to offer a new explanation for why they stopped talking.
“That’s such old history. Very easy to explain, but I don’t want to waste your time by explaining it,” Trump insisted, despite the fact that it’s essentially the number one news story in the world right now.
“But for years, I wouldn’t talk to Jeffrey Epstein. I wouldn’t talk because he did something that was inappropriate. He hired help. And I said, don’t ever do that again. He stole people that work for me,” Trump said. “I said, don’t ever do that again. And he did it again. And I threw him out of the place. Persona non grata. I threw him out. And that was it. I’m glad I did, if you want to know the truth.”
REPORTER: What caused the breach between you and Epstein?
TRUMP: That’s such old history. Very easy to explain, but I don’t want to waste your time by explaining it. He did something that was inappropriate. He hired help and I said ‘don’t ever do that again.’ I never went to the island.
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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) July 28, 2025 at 7:03 AM
But then things got even weirder.
“By the way, I never went to the island, and Bill Clinton went there supposedly 28 times,” Trump said, though no reporter had asked him specifically about visiting the island. “I never went to the island, but Larry Summers, I hear, went there. He was the head of Harvard. And many other people that are very big people, nobody ever talks about them.”
But then Trump decided to phrase his defense very oddly. “I never had the privilege of going to his island. And I did turn it down, but a lot of people in Palm Beach were invited to his island. In one of my very good moments, I turned it down. I didn’t want to go to his island,” Trump said.
It doesn’t appear that Trump has ever acknowledged being invited by Epstein to visit his island. And calling it a “privilege” will certainly raise eyebrows.
Trump insisted without providing evidence that the Democrats may have altered any files on Epstein to implicate innocent people, saying “they can put people in the files that are fake.” And the president also said he hadn’t been briefed by Attorney General Pam Bondi about the files. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Trump had been briefed that his name was in the files back in May.
Trump was also asked about Ghislaine Maxwell, the Epstein associate who abused girls and is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking. “Well, I’m allowed to give her a pardon. But nobody’s approached me with it, nobody’s asked me about it,” said Trump. “It’s in the news about that. That aspect about it. But right now it would be inappropriate to talk about it.”
The Deputy Attorney General, Todd Blanche, reportedly met with Maxwell for nine hours last week in a highly unusual move. Blanche was previously Trump’s personal attorney and appeared on the podcast of Maxwell’s attorney David Oscar Markus at least twice last year.
(Disclosure: Trump Media sued Gizmodo along with 19 other media outlets in 2023, claiming that they inaccurately reported financial data about the company. That litigation is pending.)
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