20 people who Trump has personally known and then claimed he didn't

When Gordon Sondland became a key witness in the Trump impeachment inquiry in November, Trump told reporters on the White House lawn that he was not close to the US ambassador to the European Union.

"I don't know him very well," Trump said. "I have not spoken to him much. This is not a man I know well. He seems like a nice guy though. But I don't know him well."

An array of photos and tweets reveal that Sondland and Trump are hardly strangers. In October, Trump tweeted that he "would love to send Ambassador Sondland, a really good man and a great American, to testify." And in May 2018, Trump nominated Sondland for his current position. Sondland was only nominated after he donated $1 million to Trump's inauguration committee.

In December, Trump denied knowing Prince Andrew, the son of Queen Elizabeth II, after the duke became entangled in sexual abuse accusations against Jeffrey Epstein.

"I don't know him, no," the president told reporters in London.

But a collection of photos of the two from the last 20 years proves otherwise. And an interview with People from 2000 shows Trump describing Andrew as "a lot of fun to be with."

In 2002, Trump told New York Magazine, "I've known Epstein for 15 years. Terrific Guy." He even added that "He's a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side."

The two partied together at Mar-a-Lago in 1992, in footage captured by NBC News.

Trump and Epstein had a falling out in 2004, and Trump says he banned him from his private Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach in 2007. That same year, Epstein pleaded guilty to crimes that involved soliciting minors for prostitution.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on July 9, shortly after Epstein was arrested on sex trafficking charges in New York, Trump said he knew Epstein "like everybody in Palm Beach knew him."

"I had a falling out with him a long time ago. I don't think I have spoken with him for 15 years. I was not a fan," he continued. "A long time ago. I'd say maybe 15 years. I was not a fan of his, that I can tell you. I was not a fan of his."

Notorious for his criticism of Trump on social media, George Conway, husband of counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway, has known Trump for years.

But Trump denies it anyway.

In a March 2019 tweet, Trump wrote that Conway is "VERY jealous of his wife's success" and that "I barely know him but just take a look, a stone cold LOSER & husband from hell!"

To solidify this point, he later retweeted his campaign manager who claimed that "POTUS doesn't even know him!"

But Trump and George's history dates back to when the newlywed Conways moved into an apartment at Trump World Tower in Manhattan.

George argued against taking Trump's name off the building, and the real estate developer called to thank George for what he did, offering him a spot on the condo board.

George declined the offer, but Kellyanne volunteered for the position. "My laziness led her to meet Donald Trump," George told the Washington Post in 2017.

The Post also published a 2006 letter that Trump sent to George, thanking him for helping him with the Trump Tower problem. In the postscript note, he added, "you have a truly great voice, certainly not a bad asset for a top trial lawyer!"

George Papadopoulos was a former member of Trump's foreign policy advisory panel in his 2016 presidential campaign. Trump lauded him as "an excellent guy" during a meeting with the Washington Post's editorial board the same year. The two were even photographed at the same table during a national security meeting.

But Trump's opinion quickly changed when Papadopoulos was sentenced to two weeks in prison for lying to the FBI about interactions with Russian contacts.

"I never even talked to the guy," Trump told Fox News. "I didn't know who he was."

When the National Security Council's top Ukraine expert, Alexander Vindman was set to testify on the Impeachment inquiry, Trump said that he had "never heard of him," and referred to him as a "Never Trumper."

But Vindman testified that he listened in on Trump's phone call with Zelensky and reported that the president's remarks were inappropriate, and suggested there was a "power disparity" between the two countries.

Following Trump's phone call, Vindman said he knew without hesitation that he had to report the conversation to White House lawyers.

After Trump fired Jeff Sessions, he named Matthew Whitaker as acting attorney general.

Trump told Fox News that Whitaker was "a great guy" and said, "I mean, I know Matt Whitaker."

He retracted the sentiment when Whitaker's business ties and remarks on special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation began to draw scrutiny.

"I don't know Matt Whitaker," Trump said just two days after handing Whitaker the promotion to attorney general.

Despite being Trump's campaign chairman for five months, Trump told Fox News that he "didn't know Manafort well," and that he "wasn't with the campaign long."

But these remarks only came after he was convicted and sentenced to prison for financial fraud crimes related to former counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Stephanie Clifford, an adult film star who performs with the name Stormy Daniels, said she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006. Trump immediately denied this.

"I had nothing to do with her," Trump told The Associated Press in 2018.

But after initially stating she lied about the entire affair, Trump later admitted to repaying his former lawyer Michael Cohen $130,000 that was made to Daniels as a part of a "hush money" agreement.

Another person deemed by the president as a "Never Trumper" was William Taylor, the top US diplomat to Ukraine.

Trump tweeted that he didn't know Taylor after the diplomat testified to impeachment committees that he understood the president would release military aid on the condition that the Ukrainian president was willing to announce investigations into Trump's political rivals.

However, this claim seems unlikely, since Secretary of State Mike Pompeo personally recruited Taylor after the former ambassador Marie Yovanovitch was removed from her position.

On the same day that the House of Representatives released the transcript of Marie Yovanovitch's first impeachment testimony, Trump said that he "really doesn't know her."

The former Ukraine Ambassador testified that Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, led a campaign to remove her over claims that she disrespected president Trump and was seeking to stop Ukraine from opening an investigation into Trump's political rivals.

Though Trump claims this isn't true, a recent audio recording appears to show the president telling associates to "get rid" of her — suggesting he knew exactly who she was.

Over the past few months, Trump has been attacking the Swedish climate activist over Twitter, stating that she "must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill!"

And this past Tuesday the president took the opportunity to take a swipe at Thunberg during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland saying "perennial prophets of doom and their predictions of the apocalypse" about the environment. "They are the errors of yesterday's fortune-tellers."

But later when asked about her after his speech, he claimed: "I don't really know anything about her."

Anthony Scaramucci was a financier and one of Trump's most vocal supporters when the President named him as the White House communications director in 2017.

But the president fired him just two weeks later when Scaramucci went on a verbal tirade to a New Yorker reporter about his perceived enemies within the administration. Trump's response? He tweeted that "the Mooch" was a "highly unstable 'nut job' and that he "barely knew him."

In 2016 the rapper Lil Jon confirmed that during a previous taping of "Celebrity Apprentice," now-President Trump called him an "Uncle Tom," a slur that refers to black people deemed overly servile to white people.

When asked about this during a White House press conference in November 2018, Trump denied ever knowing the rapper.

"I don't know who Lil Jon is. I don't — I really don't," he said.

But Trump's Twitter proves the contrary. Lil Jon was a two-time contender on "Celebrity Apprentice", and the president previously referred to him as an "amazing and wonderful guy," a "terrific guy" and a "great friend."

The former UK ambassador to the US, Sir Kim Darroch was forced out of his position after a series of remarks insulting the Trump administration were leaked.

After Darroch called the Trump adminstration "inept" and "uniquely dysfunctional," the president denied knowing Darroch and issued a statement showing that he would no longer be tolerated.

"I do not know the Ambassador, but he is not liked or well thought of within the U.S.," Trump said. "We will no longer deal with him."

However, the president's opinion quickly changed when he found out that Darroch compared him to the "terminator." Rather than denying he knew who he was, Trump said that Darroch had "said some good things about me," and even claimed to "wish the ambassador well."

A former Trump Tower receptionist, Rachel Crooks told the Washington Post that Trump forcibly kissed her "repeatedly on the cheeks and then 'directly on the mouth'" when they first met in 2005.

Trump immediately denied this, tweeting that it "Never happened!" and citing the Washington Post as "Fake News."

But Crooks fired back with evidence saying, "Please, by all means, share the footage from the hallway outside the 24th floor residential elevator bank on the morning of January 11, 2006. Let's clear this up for everyone. It's liars like you in politics that have prompted me to run for office myself."

President Trump faced scrutiny after mocking a New York Times reporter, Serge F. Kovaleski, for having a physical disability.

This incident happened at South Carolina political rally, during which Trump falsely accused Kovaleski of pulling back on a controversial story he wrote about 9/11.

After receiving backlash for mocking Kovaleski, Trump claimed that "Despite having one of the all-time great memories, I certainly do not remember him."

But Kovaleski, who covered Trump's business dealings for six years, told the New York Times that "Donald and I were on a first-name basis for years," and even added, "I've interviewed him in his office."

During a 2018 campaign rally, Trump attacked his Democratic Senat candidate Bob Casey, and then followed up by telling the audience, "I'm not sure I ever met Bob Casey, I never met him."

But a moment later, he contradicted himself in the same breath.

"And I'm sure I did, I shook his hand. His father was a good man, a totally different person. I don't think, I don't know this man. He's a senator, there's 100 senators, I don't know him," Trump said.

Since 2013, Trump's relationship status with Putin has been... rocky.

The president has contracted himself countless times, claiming to either have a close relationship with the Russian president or saying he doesn't know him at all.

Between 2013 and 2015, Trump has told reporters things like "I do have a relationship with Putin," and "I got to know Putin very well," and even "Putin got me a present."

But when 2016 rolled around, Trump took it all back.

As the general election progressed and new attention focused on Trump's unconventional relationship to the Russian president, he went as far as saying "I never met Putin, I don't know who Putin is."