Cameron Kasky, a Parkland shooting survivor and gun control advocate, caused a stir on CNN Monday night after claiming President Donald Trump was involved with a “human sex trafficking network” though his past ties with the late Jeffrey Epstein, but later took to social media to retract those claims, albeit in what appeared to be a sarcastic manner.
While on CNN, Kasky said he was "appreciative" of Trump’s transparency around his aspirations to acquire Greenland, which the president revealed in a stunning letter published Monday to be related to not receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. However, Kasky said he wished that transparency extended to other matters.
“I am appreciative that the president is being transparent about this; I would love it if he was more transparent about the human sex trafficking network that he was a part of, but you can’t win them all,” Kasky said.
His remark drew an immediate backlash from GOP strategist Scott Jennings. Seated right beside Kasky, Jennings asked CNN’s John Berman if he would allow Kasky’s comment to “sit” unchallenged.
Kasky stood by his claim, that Trump was "proveably very involved with” with Epstein’s sex-trafficking operations, but later the next day on Tuesday on social media, offered a different response.
“I would like to retract my comments from CNN last night and truly apologize,” Kasky wrote in a social media post on X Tuesday evening.
“Donald Trump was obviously not involved with a giant international child sex trafficking ring where women and children were systematically raped by elites. I said that by accident and didn’t mean it.”
Trump had a long and well-documented friendship with Epstein, having flown on his private jet several times in the 1990s, and in 2002, called him a “terrific guy” who "likes beautiful women” of whom “many of them are on the younger side.” In 2017, Epstein said he was Trump’s “closest friend fo ten years.”
In files released from Epstein’s Estate last year from the House Oversight Committee, documents suggest that Trump may have “spent hours” with an Epstein victim at Epstein’s home, and that Trump may have spent Thanksgiving with Epstein between 2017 and 2019.I would like to retract my comments from CNN last night and truly apologize.
Donald Trump was obviously not involved with a giant international child sex trafficking ring where women and children were systematically raped by elites.
I said that by accident and didn’t mean it.
— Cameron Kasky (@camkasky) January 20, 2026