It really shouldn’t be that big a deal.
Donald Trump was one of many friends solicited to send messages to Jeffrey Epstein for his 50th birthday. There’s a far more cautious one from Bill Clinton, too.
If the president had merely said ‘yeah, I sent it, we were joking back and forth, nothing to see here’ – this was in 2003, before the child predator was charged with sexual abuse – nobody would have blinked. The birthday book was assembled by his then-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell.
Instead, he filed a $10 billion lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal for supposedly publishing inaccuracies in its report on the Trump birthday message.
The Journal has now been vindicated.
Trump flatly denied having sent a birthday message at all. He can’t draw, he would never do such a thing, it was inconceivable.
Now it looks a lot more conceivable.
As the Journal was the first to report, there is a friendly back-and-forth against the backdrop of a sketch of a naked woman’s silhouette. Trump’s signature is in the pubic area, and the paper says it matches other acknowledged ‘Donald’ signatures – along with his use of such phrases as ‘a wonderful thing.’
There is this exchange:
Donald: We have certain things in common, Jeffrey.
Jeffrey: Yes we do, come to think of it.
Donald: Enigmas never age, have you noticed that?
Jeffrey: As a matter of fact, it was clear to me the last time I saw you.
Donald: A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret.
That’s it, given more punch by Trump’s denial that he never sent such a thing.
In fact, after the publication of the texts and the naked silhouette – which I’m sure you’ve seen as it’s been all over television – Trump continues to deny that the letter and sketch are his.
They’re sure doing a good job of moving on from the Epstein mess, huh?
Reached on his cell yesterday by NBC reporter Garrett Haake, Trump said: ‘I don’t comment on something that’s a dead issue. I gave all comments to the staff. It’s a dead issue.’
That sounds like wishful thinking. The only ‘dead’ part is Jeffrey Epstein.
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt backed up the boss in a posting:
‘The latest piece published by the Wall Street Journal PROVES this entire ‘Birthday Card’ story is false. As I have said all along, it’s very clear President Trump did not draw this picture, and he did not sign it. President Trump’s legal team will continue to aggressively pursue litigation.
‘Furthermore, the ‘reporter’ @joe_palazzolo who wrote this hatchet job reached out for comment at the EXACT same minute he published his story giving us no time to respond. This is FAKE NEWS to perpetuate the Democrat Epstein Hoax!’ But it’s hardly a hoax to Epstein’s victims, who spoke out the other day – one voted for Trump – about how being lured into having sex while young as 14 ruined their lives.
The New York Times has a sobering report on other birthday messages to Epstein.
Venture capitalist William Elkus recalled Epstein conjuring a beautiful woman out of thin air during a visit to a farm town in Iowa, where it was hard to ‘tell the difference between the girls and the hogs.’ Elkus marveled at Epstein’s being able to find a ‘spectacular tall blonde’ whom he later invited back with him to New York, concluding he had relied on ‘some long distance escort service.’
Elkus told the Times that it was a joke and that he was referring to Epstein’s ‘charisma, which was palpable.’
A person named Leslie wrote, ‘I wanted to get you what you want,’ so ‘here it is’ – a drawing of breasts. Another writer sent photos of zebras, and lions, getting it on.
A person named Nick described a night in London that left Epstein ‘howling with laughter.’ Nick said an ‘old man smiling sweetly’ pulled down a woman’s panties and put his hand on her privates, only to find another man’s hand already there.
Some women, including assistants and girlfriends – the names are redacted – may have been Epstein’s victims.
One woman wrote: ‘With you, dear Jeffrey, I laugh like a little girl and feel like a woman.’ There’s a hand-drawn heart, a brief message and a photo of a woman’s butt in a thong bikini.
There’s a cartoon of Epstein in a beach chair getting ‘what appears to be a nude massage from four topless women.’ Appears? That’s exactly what it is.
There were messages from Nathan Myhrvold, former chief technology officer for Microsoft; retail billionaire Leslie Wexner; billionaire investor Leon Black; Epstein’s onetime attorney Alan Dershowitz; and Jean-Luc Brunel, a French modeling scout who died in 2022 by suicide in a French jail cell after being charged with raping teenage girls.
The Washington Post has more, saying ‘attention to Trump’s relationship with Epstein is not going away anytime soon, and the political headaches for the president are likely to linger.’
In a partially redacted photo, Epstein is holding an oversized check made out to him for $22,500 with DJTRUMP on the signature line. The handwritten caption: ‘Sells ‘fully depreciated’ [redacted] to Donald Trump for $22,500.’
Trump allies have decided to make their stand on the signature question, adding to the murkiness.
‘Is this really the best they could do?’ wrote MAGA influencer Benny Johnson. ‘Trump has the most famous signature in the world. Time to sue them into the oblivion.’
In a drawing, labeled ‘1983,’ a male figure is pictured handing balloons to young girls in pigtails. That was next to ‘2003,’ where he’s drawn getting massages from topless blonde women with the caption ‘what a great country!’
Look, there’s no other way to say it: This has the whiff of a cover-up.
I mean, are people buying the president’s insistence that he never sent the birthday message that they’ve seen with their own eyes?
Trump boxed himself by insisting, even now, that he’d never sent such a message. That’s the heart of the political problem.
The president may pronounce the story dead, but for the rest of the world – including MAGA supporters who have been obsessed with this case – it’s very much alive.