President Donald Trump insisted he has no connection to Jeffrey Epstein, pushing back after comedian Trevor Noah took a swipe at him during Sunday night’s Grammy Awards broadcast. The comments come as the Epstein case has returned to the spotlight following a massive new release of Justice Department records tied to the investigation.
Noah, hosting the 68th annual Grammys in Los Angeles, referenced Trump’s past social proximity to Epstein while presenting an award. In his joke, Noah said winning Song of the Year is what artists want “almost as much as Trump wants Greenland,” adding that with Epstein’s island no longer in the picture, Trump needed a new place to “hang out with Bill Clinton.” The audience laughed—but the line quickly drew the president’s ire.
Speaking with reporters in the Oval Office, Trump dismissed Noah as a “lightweight” and criticized his performance as host, saying he was far worse than Jimmy Kimmel. Trump also took aim at the Grammys broadcast itself, calling it “not watchable” and claiming he only watched part of the show.
He then turned directly to the Epstein jab, saying he had “nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein” and insisting he never visited Epstein’s private island.
Trump’s response arrives amid renewed public attention after the Justice Department released more than 3 million pages of documents linked to the Epstein investigations on January 30. Trump argued the disclosure undercuts efforts to tie him to Epstein and framed the ongoing focus on the case as politically driven and wildly overblown.
He claimed the newly released material suggests Epstein was working with writer Michael Wolff in an attempt to damage him ahead of an election. Trump portrayed that as proof that Epstein was not an ally—arguing that if anything, the records show Epstein trying to hurt him, not help him.
Trump also suggested Democrats were the ones pushing the story now, but said the attention was shifting back onto them. He pointed to former President Bill Clinton’s documented links to Epstein, claiming the political fallout would force Democrats to ease off the issue.
In the end, Trump cast the moment as a distraction—another attempt, he argued, to smear him by association. The president maintained that the effort has failed, saying the focus on Epstein is wasting time that should be spent on more pressing national priorities.
