US President Donald Trump has threatened legal action against comedian Trevor Noah following a joke made at the Grammy Awards that referenced Trump and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
While hosting the ceremony, Noah quipped: “Song of the Year — that is a Grammy that every artist wants almost as much as Trump wants Greenland, which makes sense because Epstein’s island is gone, he needs a new one to hang out with Bill Clinton.”
Trump, who was acquainted with Epstein for several years, has repeatedly said he had no knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and that the two fell out around 2004. He has denied ever visiting Epstein’s private island and has not been accused of any criminal wrongdoing by Epstein’s victims. The US Justice Department has previously described allegations involving Trump as unfounded and false.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump rejected Noah’s remarks and threatened to sue, calling them “false and defamatory”.
“Noah said, INCORRECTLY about me, that Donald Trump and Bill Clinton spent time on Epstein Island. WRONG!!!” Trump wrote. “I have never been to Epstein Island, nor anywhere close.”
Trump added that until Noah’s remarks, he had never been accused of visiting the island, “not even by the Fake News Media”, and warned the comedian to “get his facts straight”.
A spokesperson for former US President Bill Clinton said in 2020 that Clinton had “never been” to Epstein’s island, Little St James. Clinton has not been accused of any wrongdoing.
Epstein was found dead in his New York prison cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges, more than a decade after his conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor. He bought the private island in 1998, and multiple survivors have since alleged they were trafficked there and abused.
Trump has pursued legal action against several media organisations in recent years, including the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. In December, he filed a multi-billion-dollar lawsuit in Florida accusing the media of defamation and violations of trade practices law over the editing of a Panorama documentary.
Trevor Noah, a South African-born comedian, hosted The Daily Show on Comedy Central for seven years before stepping down in 2022.
