In a freak glitch, the official White House switchboard phone number appeared as “Epstein Island” on some Android devices. The bizarre naming error was discovered by reporters from The Washington Post who were trying to contact the White House about First Lady Melania Trump’s recent humanoid robot event.
The calls went to the correct White House number, but some Washington Post reporters saw the label Epstein Island appear on their screen instead of “White House.” The report notes that the issue only affected Android users, while iPhone users continued to see the normal name.
As for the original reason for the phone call, reporters were looking for details on the first lady’s outfit during her summit alongside a humanoid robot. A spokesperson later confirmed that she was wearing a Dolce & Gabbana pantsuit and Christian Louboutin heels.
Google responds to the controversy:
Soon after the offending title started appearing on Android devices, Google confirmed the issue in a statement to the Post. Google spokesperson Matthew Flegal explained that the company identified a “fake edit” in Google Maps that was briefly caught by the Caller ID feature on some Android devices.
Flegal also confirmed that the company revoked the edit because it violated Google’s policies, and the responsible user was blocked from making further changes. After making the changes, calling the White House switchboard from a Pixel device only showed a phone number without a name.
An anonymous White House official also confirmed to The Post that the nickname for the call was an external matter completely unrelated to internal White House systems.
What is Epstein Island?
“Epstein Island” is the nickname for Little Saint James, the private Caribbean estate of the late disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. The island was owned by Epstein from 1998 until his death in federal custody in 2019. Federal prosecutors previously said that Epstein, a registered sex offender, bought the island to take advantage of its seclusion and that it functioned as a hub for his expansive criminal empire, where Epstein and his associates abused, entrapped, and sexually assaulted and sexually abused nearly two women.
US President Donald Trump has previously admitted that he knew Epstein socially before they fell out in the mid-2000s. Trump also said he knew nothing about Epstein’s criminal behavior.
In the past few months, the US Department of Justice has released millions of pages of documents, images and videos related to the Epstein investigation under the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
