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In recent weeks, the White House has repeatedly dismissed questions about Donald Trump’s long relationship with Jeffrey Epstein by telling reporters that the future president broke with the notorious sex offender and banned him from Mar-a-Lago around 2004 for doing something “inappropriate”.

“Trump expelled Epstein from the Mar-a-Lago club for inappropriate behavior”, White House communications director Steven Cheung said last week.

The clear implication has been that, as White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt put it, Epstein had been barred from the club, “for being creep”.

This version of Trump’s breach with Epstein tracks with what a member of the club told Sarah Blaskey, a Miami Herald investigative reporter, in 2020. According to Blaskey, who co-wrote a book about Mar-a-Lago, a club member told her, in what appears to have been a second-hand account, that Trump “kicked Epstein out after Epstein harassed the daughter of a member. The way this person described it, such an act could irreparably harm the Trump brand, leaving Donald no choice but to remove Epstein”.

Blaskey’s book, however, points to evidence that Epstein remained on the membership rolls of Mar-a-Lago until October 2007, more than a year after he was first arrested and charged with soliciting prostitution from a minor.

On Monday, however, when a reporter in Scotland asked Trump to say exactly why “you threw him out of Mar-a-Lago”, the president offered a different explanation the behavior he found so distasteful.

“For years I wouldn’t talk to Jeffrey Epstein”, Trump said, “because he did something that was inappropriate”.

As Leavitt looked on, the president, unprompted, went on to explain what the late sex offender had done that was inappropriate. “He hired help, and I said ‘Don’t ever do that again’. He stole people that worked for me. I said, ‘Don’t ever do that again’. He did it again and I threw him out of the place. Persona non grata. I threw him out and that was it”.

Donald Trump explained that he broke with Jeffrey Epstein after the late sex offender hired away staff from his club.

Trump went on to repeat his false claim that Bill Clinton visited Epstein’s island, “supposedly 28 times.” There is no evidence that Clinton ever visited Epstein’s island, Little St. James, and a spokesperson for the former president said in 2019 that he was never there.

Court records show that Epstein did indeed hire at least one staff member away from Mar-a-Lago. In 2000, Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s companion, met a 16-year-old spa attendant at Mar-a-Lago, Virginia Giuffre, and offered her a job as a masseuse for Epstein.

Giuffre, who died in April, was one of Epstein’s accusers, said later that when Maxwell brought her to massage Epstein, he was naked, beginning a period during which she said she was abused by a series of the financier’s friends, including, she claimed, Prince Andrew.

Awdah Al-Hathaleen, a Palestinian teacher from the West Bank who was recently denied entry to the United States by San Francisco immigration authorities when he arrived on a valid visa, was shot and killed today in an altercation with an Israeli settler, according to family and Middle East journalists.

Phillip Weintraub, a lead organizer of a Palestinian solidarity committee at Kehilla Community Synagogue, who helped sponsor Al-Hathaleen when he attempted to visit San Francisco in June, said he learned of the Al-Hathaleen’s death through Alhadlin’s cousin, Eid Hthaleen.

“The settlers had brought a large bulldozer into the village yesterday,” Weintraub said. “So they were predicting something bad was going to happen today.”

Al-Hathaleen arrived in San Francisco on June 12 with his cousin, Hthaleen, to speak in the Bay Area about their experiences living in the West Bank during the ongoing war and their conflicts with violent Israeli settlers.

The two men were sponsored by the Kehilla Community Synagogue, with which they had ongoing relations and received support in their village in the South Hebron Hills.

But upon their landing, Mission Local reported the two men’s Bay Area sponsors learned that their visas had been revoked. After being detained at the San Francisco International Airport for a full day, and about 100 people gathered to protest their detention, they were flown back to the Middle East.

While Weintraub called the situation Al-Hathaleen and his neighbors faced in the West Bank “horrific,” he did not believe there was any connection between their attempt to visit the United States and the shooting.

The village, Umm Al-Khair, was featured in “No Other Land,” a documentary that won an Academy Award in 2025. Yuval Abraham, a journalist for +972 Magazine and co-director of the film, reported Alhadlin’s death on X.

“An Israeli settler just shot Odeh Hadalin in the lungs, a remarkable activist who helped us film ‘No Other Land’ in Masafer Yatta,” Abraham wrote in a post today, with an accompanying video of a Yinon Levi, a settler sanctioned by the U.S. government, brandishing a gun wildly and shooting it during an altercation.

It is unconfirmed who shot Al-Hathaleen, but Weintraub said the 30-something father of three young children was rushed to a hospital for a gunshot wound to his chest.

A couple hours later, Abraham posted an update: “Odeh just died. Murdered.”

Note: Awdah Al-Hathaleen’s name is also spelled as Ouda Alhadlin on his documents, but those familiar with him said he used the former spelling.

The trip was intended to “build bridges between cultures,” and “to raise summer camp funds to help give Palestinian children experiencing the unthinkable a semblance of a childhood back home,” according to a statement on Tuesday from San Francisco Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, who went to SFO with activists last month to oppose the men’s detainment.

When the two men landed at SFO, they were detained for hours and then sent back home by immigration authorities, supporters said.

“Awdah Hathaleen came to the U.S. to warn us about settler violence and land theft in the West Bank and the genocide unfolding in Gaza. … Instead of listening, our government silenced him,” Robert McCaw, government affairs director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations and its Bay Area office, said in a statement on Monday.

“Now he’s been killed by an Israeli settler,” McCaw continued. “We didn’t just turn him away. We sent him back to die.”

In a statement emailed to KQED on June 16, Customs and Border Patrol said the men “failed to establish they were admissible to the U.S.,” and then “withdrew their applications for admission and departed.”

A broad swath of Bay Area leaders, including Reps. John Garamendi, Jared Huffman, Ro Khanna, Sam Liccardo, Zoe Lofgren, Kevin Mullin, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, Lateefah Simon, Eric Swalwell, and Mike Thompson, issued a joint statement condemning the cousins’ denial of entry to the U.S. Protesters who gathered at the airport’s international arrivals hall were joined by Mahmood and fellow Supervisor Jackie Fielder.

Mahmood spoke out against Al-Hathaleen’s killing on Tuesday, condemning the murder and “the Israeli government’s occupation of Palestine.”

“We must call it what it is: a genocide of an entire population,” the supervisor said in a statement. “For Awdah and many like him, I am calling for this killing of innocent civilians to come to an end, and for peace to be promoted once more.”

Awdah Hathaleen, who was killed by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank village of Umm al-Khair on Monday, had been denied entry into the US last month after arriving for a speaking tour.

In July, Hathaleen, a teacher and activist, had been invited to an interfaith speaking tour at the invitation of the Kehilla Community Synagogue to talk about the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.

Upon arrival at the San Francisco International Airport, he and his cousin, Eid, who had travelled on valid visas, were detained and then deported on a flight back to the Middle East.

News of their detention led to an emergency demonstration at the airport and a joint public statement by locally elected federal politicians, including Nancy Pelosi, Nancy, Lateefah Simon, and Eric Swalwell.

“Just last month, I joined my Bay Area colleagues in demanding answers from the administration after Awdah and his cousin, both holding valid visas, were unjustly detained and deported from SFO while travelling to my district for a multicultural faith dialogue,” said Simon in a public statement issued on Monday.

“The settler who killed Awdah must be held accountable. We cannot and will not support violence. No one should live under the threat of demolition, displacement or death,” the congresswoman continued.

Hathaleen was featured in the Oscar-winning documentary film, “No Other Land,” which tells the story of Palestinians in the West Bank area of Masafer Yatta, which is being increasingly being taken over by violent Israeli settlers. One of the settlers involved in the attack has been identified as Yinon Levi, who is under US government sanctions.

The leaders of the synagogue that had helped sponsor Hathaleen’s visa, Kehilla, located in northern California, have had an “allyship” with the people of Masafer Yatta since 2022, according to their website.

“It is critical that Jews build direct relationships with our Palestinian brothers and sisters suffering oppression from Israeli forces,” said Phil Weintraub, a member of the Kehilla Community Synagogue, according to a statement on their website. “We do that by providing concrete support, manifesting our solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for liberation.”

In the wake of Hathaleen’s killing, rights advocates continue to question why he was denied entry to the US, given what many see as his carrying an important message

“Awdah Hathaleen came to the US to warn us about settler violence and land theft in the West Bank and the genocide unfolding in Gaza. He came to speak about Israeli apartheid backed by US weapons and political cover,” Robert McCaw, government affairs director with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said in a statement.

“Instead of listening, our government silenced him. His visa was revoked; he was detained and deported because his story exposed our complicity with genocide. Now he’s been killed by an Israeli settler. We didn’t just turn him away. We sent him back to die,” CAIR added.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and its San Francisco Bay Area office (CAIR-SFBA) today condemned the killing by an illegal Israeli settler of Palestinian human rights activist Awdah Hathaleen, who was recently denied entry to the U.S. and who helped film the “No Other Land” documentary highlighting Israel’s apartheid occupation of the West Bank.

SEE: Activist Who Helped Film “No Other Land” Shot and Killed by Israeli Settler

In June, CAIR-SFBA expressed appreciation to Reps. John Garamendi, Jared Huffman, Ro Khanna, Sam Liccardo, Zoe Lofgren, Kevin Mullin, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, Lateefah Simon, Eric Swalwell, and Mike Thompson for issuing a joint statement condemning his denial of entry to the U.S. at San Francisco International Airport (SFO).

In a statement, CAIR-SFBA Executive Director Zahra Billoo said:

“We are heartbroken and outraged by the killing of Awdah Hathaleen, a teacher and activist whose only crime was defending his family and land. His death is a devastating reminder of the escalating Israeli settler violence and unchecked impunity faced by Palestinians every day.

“We mourn alongside his family and the Bay Area communities who had hoped to hear his story firsthand. The U.S. government must be held accountable—not only for denying entry to Hathaleen when he sought to speak truth to power here, but also for continuing to fund and shield a regime that enables this violence.

“We demand justice for Awdah and all Palestinians who continue to live and die under occupation.”

In a statement, CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw said:

“Awdah Hathaleen came to the U.S. to warn us about settler violence and land theft in the West Bank and the genocide unfolding in Gaza. He came to speak about Israeli apartheid backed by U.S. weapons and political cover. Instead of listening, our government silenced him. His visa was revoked; he was detained and deported because his story exposed our complicity with genocide. Now he’s been killed by an Israeli settler. We didn’t just turn him away. We sent him back to die.”