Former U.S. President Donald Trump has expressed sympathy for the British royal family following the decision to strip former Prince Andrew of his royal titles due to his ties with the late financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday, Nov. 2, Trump, 79, commented on Andrew, 65, losing his “His Royal Highness” title and other honors. “I feel very badly,” Trump said. “It’s a terrible thing that’s happened to the family. That’s been a tragic situation, and it’s too bad. I mean, I feel badly for the family.”
Buckingham Palace announced on Thursday, Oct. 30, that Andrew would now be referred to as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor — a historic change for the monarchy. The decision followed renewed scrutiny of his association with Epstein, who died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(784x157:786x159):format(webp)/donald-trump-air-force-one-110325-9d600087a0d146c99a747dca6fdf7441.jpg)
Andrew’s relationship with Epstein has long been controversial. In 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting s*x from a minor. Around that time, his friendship with Andrew was well known; the two had even been photographed together at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
Reports have also resurfaced about Trump’s own past connection to Epstein, including allegations that he once gifted the convicted sex offender a lewd letter for his 50th birthday in 2003, as reported by The Wall Street Journal. Trump dismissed the report as “fake.”
Born a prince and styled “His Royal Highness” from birth, Andrew was given several titles by his late mother, Queen Elizabeth, including Duke of York, Earl of Inverness, and Baron Killyleagh. However, under King Charles’ recent decision, Andrew lost his Order of the Garter and Knight Grand Cross of the Victorian Order distinctions. He will also vacate the Royal Lodge in Windsor, his home since 2003.
Trump previously called Epstein a “terrific guy” in a 2002 interview with New York magazine, adding that “he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.” The remark resurfaced ahead of Trump’s U.K. visit in September when it was featured in a London bus stop advertisement. Around the same time, four men were arrested after projecting images of Trump and Epstein onto Windsor Castle; the charges were later dropped, according to the BBC.
Trump and members of his administration have pledged to declassify and release the Epstein files, including during his 2024 campaign.
Andrew, meanwhile, stepped back from public duties after a disastrous BBC Newsnight interview addressing his alleged involvement with Epstein. In January 2022, Queen Elizabeth formally stripped him of his military titles and patronages after he sought to dismiss a sexual assault lawsuit filed by Virginia Giuffre, a survivor who later died by suicide at age 41. Andrew settled with Giuffre out of court for an undisclosed amount, while continuing to deny any wrongdoing. Giuffre had alleged that Andrew engaged in sexual acts with her on three occasions when she was 17 and trafficked by Epstein.
On Oct. 17 of this year, Andrew announced he would relinquish the use of his royal and honorary titles amid renewed attention to his association with Epstein following the upcoming release of Giuffre’s posthumous memoir Nobody’s Girl. In it, Giuffre claimed Andrew “believed having sex with me was his birthright.”
Former royal press secretary Ailsa Anderson later explained why the process to revoke Andrew’s titles took time. “Andrew had been dragging his heels. They had to take constitutional and legal advice regarding the lease on Royal Lodge,” she said. “They had to get all the dots on the I’s and T’s crossed before they made this announcement.”
