For a short time, some Android phones showed the official White House number as “Epstein Island” not “White House” when people called. The Washington Post spotted this glitch after its reporters phoned the Oval Office earlier this week.
White House Phone Number Shows “Epstein Island” on Android Devices
The calls went through to the right line, but this weird label popped up for Android users, especially those with Google Pixel phones. iPhones didn’t display any name at all.
The Post reported, “It wasn’t a wrong number. That’s just what the phone screen said when our journalists rang the White House switchboard.”
After noticing the mistake, the paper flagged it for Google. Matthew Flegal, a Google spokesperson, said it happened because someone slipped in a fake edit on Google Maps. That wrong info then showed up on the caller ID for certain Android phones.
Google Fixes White House Number Glitch
Google fixed the problem quickly. The White House label started showing up correctly, and now, when you call the number, you only see the phone number, no name.
Flegal said the edit broke Google’s rules, so the person responsible got blocked from making more changes.
Mike Blumenthal, who helps businesses manage their Google listings, has been calling out Google for ages on how easy it is to change business names or phone numbers across Google’s services, search, Maps, even phone caller ID.
He told The Post, “Nobody really knows how long that ‘Epstein Island’ name was tied to the White House number, or how many people saw it.”
White House Caller ID Controversy
The White House has been asked about Trump’s earlier friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, who died by suicide in a Manhattan jail in 2019 while facing charges for sex trafficking of underage girls.
Trump said he knew Epstein socially but parted ways in the mid-2000s, claiming he had no clue about Epstein’s crimes.
According to prosecutors, some illegal activity happened at Epstein’s private estate in the Caribbean, Little St. James Island widely called “Epstein Island.”
