During a joint press conference Thursday with Starmer, Trump was asked if he sympathized with Mandelson over his sacking.
“I don’t know him, actually,” the president replied. “I had heard that, and I think maybe the prime minister would be better speaking of that, that was a choice that he made, I don’t know.”
Looking pointedly at Starmer, he asked: “What is your answer to that?”
Starmer — who has been embroiled in a row over what his team knew, and when they knew it — insisted “information came to light last week which wasn’t available when [Mandelson] was appointed.”
Starmer sacked Mandelson after Bloomberg revealed leaked emails showing the ambassador had sent Epstein effusive support the day before he began his 2008 prison sentence for soliciting prostitution from a minor.
Mandelson built links with Trump allies during his eight months in office, and spoke at length in the Oval Office in May when the U.K. and U.S. agreed a limited trade deal — even offering the president a deal on a Rolls Royce.
Trump told him in return: “What a beautiful accent. I’d like to have that accent.”