By Erika Pearce17/x,Frank Yemi

Copyright inquisitr

President Donald Trump tried to slam the door on questions about Britain’s now-ousted ambassador to Washington, Lord Peter Mandelson, saying “I don’t know him.” Reporters did a double take, because photos from May show Trump and Mandelson smiling together in the Oval Office, a tidy little contradiction now ricocheting around the internet and cable news.

The question landed during Trump’s UK swing, where he shared a podium with Prime Minister Keir Starmer. A British reporter raised what he called the elephant in the room, Mandelson’s abrupt firing last week over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein. Trump brushed it off, claiming ignorance, then punted the rest to Starmer, drawing laughs from the UK press pack. Within minutes, those White House photos, Trump, Mandelson, the Resolute Desk in the background, were circulating again, undercutting the president’s denials in real time.

Trump just lied and said he doesn’t know who Peter Mandelson is. pic.twitter.com/SgDKfUq6YE
— Mukhtar (@I_amMukhtar) September 18, 2025

The timing is brutal for London. Starmer had only appointed Mandelson in February, tapping the Labour grandee for Britain’s most high-profile diplomatic post. That ended on September 11 after leaked emails showed Mandelson had offered Epstein advice during his 2008 prosecution and referred to the sex offender as his “best pal,” details that had not been fully disclosed when he took the job. The Foreign Office said the “depth and extent” of Mandelson’s relationship with Epstein was “materially different” from what officials believed at the time of his appointment, and pulled the plug immediately.

For Trump, the optics are not great either. The president’s “I don’t know him” line is a familiar shield he has used before, but the photographic record tells a messier story. Agencies captured Mandelson at the White House in May, part of a diplomatic charm offensive that, until last week, looked like a win for both sides of the Atlantic. With the dismissal now official, those images have become evidence for critics who say Trump’s reflexive denials wilt under basic fact-checking.

Left: Trump praising Peter Mandelson in the Oval Office in May
Right: Trump today, claiming he ‘doesn’t know him, actually’ after Peter Mandelson is fired over his connections to Epstein pic.twitter.com/LwsteA1lmQ
— FactPost (@factpostnews) September 18, 2025

Starmer, for his part, is racing to cauterize the scandal as Trump’s state visit dominates front pages. The government installed a caretaker at the embassy and is signaling a tighter vetting regime after what one senior official described as a damaging breach of trust. The episode has already prompted questions in Parliament about how the emails were missed and why red flags were not fully aired before Mandelson’s posting.

Peter Mandelson referred to Jeffrey Epstein as his “mysterious” “best pal” who would “take you by surprise… in one of his glorious homes he likes to share with his friends (yum yum)”
Is this the reason he was chosen to be UK ambassador to US under Donald Trump? pic.twitter.com/DnQwBGRQEl
— Double Down News (@DoubleDownNews) September 9, 2025

Across the pond, the Mandelson affair is colliding with America’s own hair-trigger culture war. Trump allies are downplaying the photos, saying a handshake does not equal a relationship, while critics are highlighting the Oval Office setting, a backdrop presidents rarely share with people they claim not to know. The clash is perfectly made for the split-screen era, Trump on one side saying, move along, nothing to see, archival images on the other insisting there is.

The fact is, the ambassador is out, the photos are in, and Trump’s latest “never met the guy” defense just ran headfirst into a very public paper trail. With a state visit to sell and a special relationship to smooth over, Downing Street will be desperate to keep the focus on trade and tech investment. Instead, it is scrambling to fill a diplomatic hole, while the White House tries to explain away a picture worth a thousand headlines.