A White House spokesperson said Trump gave ‘an appropriate and unambiguous response.’
President Donald Trump was caught on camera raising his middle finger and yelling “F–k you” to a man who called him a “pedophile protector” amid the ongoing controversy surrounding the full release of the Epstein files — and the White House is defending his response.
The moment, seen in a video published by TMZ, occurred while Trump, 79, visited the Ford F-150 plant before delivering his speech at the Detroit Economic Club in Michigan on Tuesday, Jan. 13. The person who commented was allegedly a worker at the plant, per the outlet.
“A lunatic was wildly screaming expletives in a complete fit of rage, and the president gave an appropriate and unambiguous response,” White House spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement to PEOPLE.
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“We had a great event today, and we’re proud of how our employees represented Ford,” a spokesperson for Ford told TMZ. “We’ve seen the clip you’re referring to. One of our core values is respect, and we don’t condone anyone saying anything inappropriate like that within our facilities. When that happens, we have a process to deal with it, but we don’t get into specific personnel matters.”
PEOPLE has reached out to a representative for Ford for comment.
The person’s comment appears to address Trump’s connection to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The financier, who died in prison in 2019, was previously charged with sex trafficking of minors.
The Department of Justice released thousands of documents related to Epstein after the Congressionally-mandated deadline to release them passed on Dec. 19. However, Justice Department officials told a federal judge that over 2 million documents remain unreleased, The Washington Post reported on Jan. 6.
“The Department of Justice has officially released nearly 30,000 more pages of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein,” the DOJ said in a Dec. 23 statement. “Some of these documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims made against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election.”
“To be clear: the claims are unfounded and false, and if they had a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already,” the statement continued. “Nevertheless, out of our commitment to the law and transparency, the DOJ is releasing these documents with the legally required protections for Epstein’s victims.”
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