President Donald Trump Thursday said "I don't know him" in response to a question about Britain's ambassador to the United States, Peter Mandelson, who was fired this month over his connection to the financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
"And finally, if I may, the elephant in the room, room, Lord Mandelson, he is no longer the ambassador," the reporter asked. "Do you have have some sympathy with him that he lost his job over historic links to Jeffrey Epstein?"
Trump then deflected, punted the question about Mandelson to Prime Minister Keir Starmer — which made the British reporters in the room laugh.
Trump has met with Mandelson on multiple occasions and was even photographed in the Oval Office with him in May.
UK Prime Minster Keir Starmer last week ordered his firing after a series of damaging revelations about his longtime friendship with the disgraced financier and convicted child sex abuser, reported The Telegraph, which had previously revealed emails showing Mandelson advised Epstein on how to respond to criminal charges over soliciting a minor in 2008.
"The emails show that the depth and extent of Peter Mandelson’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein is materially different from that known at the time of his appointment," the Foreign Office said in a statement. “In light of that, and mindful of the victims of Epstein’s crimes he has been withdrawn as Ambassador with immediate effect.”