Trump: Ignore All the Pics, I Don't Know Prince Andrew

After his train wreck of a TV interview last month about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, Prince Andrew has been shunned by business backers, given the nod to step away from his royal duties, been kicked out of Buckingham Palace, and had his birthday party nixed. Now, what was at least a casual acquaintance with President Trump is being denied, by Trump himself, though photos have emerged that say otherwise. The Guardian reports that the US president was hit with a question about the disgraced royal on Tuesday while attending an event in London, and Trump answered with, "I don't know Prince Andrew, but that's a tough story, it's a very tough story. ... I don't know him, no."

It's also a "different story" than what resurfaced pictures tell, CNN notes, pointing out not only recent photos of the two together during Trump's state visit to England in June, but also at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in 2000, along with Melania Trump, who was Trump's girlfriend then. Per Vox's Aaron Rupar, Epstein was also reportedly at that Mar-a-Lago party. So why the sudden amnesia on Andrew? The New York Times, which also notes a photo of the two taken at a NYC hotel opening in 2000, says Trump "has sometimes sought to distance himself from people whom it has become painful or perilous to discuss"—most recently Gordon Sondland, the US ambassador to the EU who testified on TV in the impeachment inquiry. (More President Trump stories.)