April 27, 2026 11:44 AM UTC

Donald J. Trump: "I'm Not a Pedophile"

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• by: Colorado Pols

President Trump has tried (and tried, and tried, and tried…) to make the Epstein Files story go away, calling it a “hoax” and insisting — with no evidence — that he has been “totally exonerated” despite the fact that his name appears in the files literally thousands of times. Trump doth protest so much that he keeps the Epstein Files spotlight locked firmly on his orange dome.

In an interview with Norah O’Donnell for “60 Minutes” that aired on Sunday, Trump did a masterful job of reminding the world that there is plenty of fire from which all this smoke is coming. Trump launched into a weird defense about the Epstein Files without O’Donnell even needing to bring up his connections to the case, leading to a now-classic response from the journalist: “Oh, you think — do you think he was referring to you?”

The interview was focused on a shooting outside the venue for the White House correspondents’ dinner on Saturday. O’Donnell brought up a “manifesto” that the alleged shooter sent to friends, which was all it took for Trump to get defensive:

O’DONNELL: The so-called manifesto is a stunning thing to read, Mr. President. He appears to reference a motive in it. He writes this quote, “Administration officials, they are targets.” And he also wrote this, “I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes.” What’s your reaction to that?

TRUMP: Well, I was waiting for you to read that because I knew you would because you’re– you’re he– you’re horrible people. Horrible people. Yeah, he did write that. I’m– I’m not a rapist. I didn’t rape anybody.

O’DONNELL: Oh you think– do you think he was referring to you?

 

TRUMP: I’m not a rapist. I didn’t rape anybody

O’DONNELL: Oh, you think he was referring to you?

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) April 26, 2026 at 5:39 PM

Trump then continued to attack O’Donnell for alleging that he is a pedophile…except O’Donnell had said no such thing.

TRUMP: I’m not a pedophile. Excuse me. Excuse me. I’m not a pedophile. You read that crap from some sick person? I got associated with all– stuff that has nothing to do with me. I was totally exonerated. Your friends on the other side of the plate are the ones that were involved with, little’s say, Epstein or other things. But I said to myself, “You know, I’ll do this interview and they’ll probably”– I read the manifesto. You know, he’s a sick person. But you should be ashamed of yourself reading that because I’m not any of those things.

O’DONNELL: Mr. President these are the gunman’s words –

TRUMP: And I was never– excuse me. Excuse me. You shouldn’t be reading that on 60 Minutes. You’re a disgrace. But go ahead. Let’s finish the interview.

O’DONNELL: The other thing that he wrote, in the–

TRUMP: You– you’re disgraceful.

It has become a truism in the Trump administration that the best way to know if something is true is to wait for someone to call a story “fake news” and start attacking reporters for even asking about a subject. Trump has taken this a step further by lashing out before the question is even asked about the Epstein Files.

We don’t know that Trump was definitively involved in the underage sex crimes perpetrated by Jeffrey Epstein, but people with nothing to hide generally don’t yell out “I’m not a pedophile” unprompted.

Congressional Republicans, including Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Windsor), are certainly not sold on the idea that there is nothing more to discuss when it comes to the Epstein Files. Boebert resisted strong-armed tactics from the Trump administration last year intended to pressure her into backing off her support for a discharge petition demanding the full release of the Epstein Files. As we noted last week, Boebert is also among the Republicans pushing back against the Justice Department’s slow-walking of information and dodging Congressional subpoenas aimed at furthering the investigation into Epstein’s sex trafficking.

Regardless, President Trump has now entered the same cultural lexicon of former President Richard Nixon, who famously declared during a live press conference, “I am not a crook,” in reference to his role in the Watergate scandal.

“I’m not a pedophile” will not soon be forgotten.