Extracting Data from .csv file adding fn!char(65279)

So I have a process where a user uploads a .csv or .txt file with numbers. Those numbers are then extracted and ran through various validation checks. When a user uploads it in a .txt file, no issue. When it's a .csv file, the very first value, a fn!char(65279) is always added before it, so it's failing the validation check. Like so:

When I copy the expression and paste it into the rule input of my validation expression rule, that first number always fails the validation check. But if I remove the fn!char(65279), it passes and works. A quick google search showed me that this is some sort of whitespace character. So I tried adding trim() to the variable that hold each individual extracted number, but that doesn't appear to make a difference. Does anyone have any idea? To either prevent that char from being extracted with the data, or to remove it after extraction? Thanks for any help.