Trump Gives 'Embarrassing' Excuse for Friendship With Epstein... as Prez Desperately Tries to Bury His Connection to Late Sex Offender

Donald Trump just can't seem to shake his connection to Jeffrey Epstein, even if he had an explanation for their friendship, RadarOnline.com can reveal.

According to reports, the president was left baffled by the public's disgust with his former pal, telling aids that's just how things used to be.

In July, on day two of a conservative conference in Tampa, Trump is said to have been chatting away on the phone with notable supporters, pleading with them to know why the country wanted the Epstein files released and how he had become tangled in the mess.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the controversial politician even told his aides, "people don't understand that Palm Beach in the 90s was a different time," referring to the time in which he and the pedophile would cross paths and engage at Trump's Mar-a-Lago exclusive club.

Social media users were quick to call out Trump's "embarrassing" excuse, as one person on X went off, "I'd sure as hell love to hear him expand on that, and tell us what kind of things he was doing in Palm Beach in the 90s. In the form of sworn testimony, preferably."

Another added: "Is he seriously trying to squirm his way out of this?" and one user raged, "He just refuses to accept he loved hanging out with Epstein."

In response to the new report, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told RadarOnline.com: "This is a lazy rewrite of a dead story. It's not news that Epstein knew Donald Trump, because Donald Trump kicked Epstein out of his club for being a creep.

"Democrats and the media knew about Epstein and his victims for years and did nothing to help them while President Trump was calling for transparency, and is now delivering on it with thousands of pages of documents."

Earlier this year, Trump claimed he had Epstein booted from Mar-a-Lago after learning his employees were being "stolen" from his spa.

He explained: "People that work in the spa – I have a great spa, one of the best spas in the world at Mar-a-Lago – and people were taken out of the spa, hired by (Epstein). In other words, gone. And other people would come and complain, 'This guy is taking people from the spa.' I didn’t know that."

"And then when I heard about it, I told him. I said, 'Listen, we don't want you taking our people.' Whether it was spa or not spa, I don't want him taking people. And he was fine, then not too long after that, he did it again, and I said, 'out of here,'" the former reality star added about apparently kicking Epstein out of his club.

Despite his best efforts to erase the past, Trump's connection to Epstein continues to haunt the president, as he was recently accused of writing a note to Epstein for his 50th birthday, one which also included a sketch of a naked woman.

The alleged message, which ended with a signature labeled as "Donald," and written in a way to look like pubic hair on a woman, appeared to show a conversation between Trump and the vile criminal, with Trump telling Epstein, "they have certain things in common."

"A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret," the letter concluded.

In response, Trump denied ever writing the note and told NBC News: "I don’t comment on something that's a dead issue. I gave all comments to the staff. It's a dead issue."

The pair's friendship, however, was immortalized in a statue of Trump and Epstein holding hands, which appeared briefly on D.C.'s National Mall this week, only to be removed a day later.