After the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday night on a 2003 letter to Jeffrey Epstein that included Donald Trump’s name and an outline of a naked woman, the president’s denial was comprehensive.
“I never wrote a picture in my life. I don’t draw pictures of women,” he told the Journal. “It’s not my language. It’s not my words.”
“I don’t draw pictures,” he later wrote on Truth Social.
However, a charity director told CNN that in 2004 Trump sent her two signed drawings for an Ohio charity auction. And news reports suggest other drawings of his have sold for thousands of dollars.
Dr. Lowery Lockard, who ran the auction for Hattie Larlham – a nonprofit foundation – said she was “shocked and impressed” at the artful nature of then-real estate mogul and reality show host Donald Trump’s doodles.
“It was somebody we reached out to,” said Lockard. “It just wasn’t really something that I would have expected.”
The drawings raise questions about Trump’s vociferous denial that he draws. (His eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., also said he had never seen his father doodle.) Trump has also denied that he wrote the letter that the Journal said it had reviewed and was part of a collection of notes given to Epstein for his 50th birthday.
In a statement for this story White House spokesman Steven Cheung said, “As the President has said, the Wall Street Journal printed fake news and he doesn’t draw things like the outlet described.”
In 2004, Lockard collected around 150 drawings from celebrities for the auction, sending them a “doodle kit” in which they could draw anything they like on it. Appropriate for his big-city mogul image, Trump chose the New York City skyline for his doodles.
According to Lockard, the celebrities sent the doodles back with a signed waiver, authenticating them and allowing them to be sold at auction. “They sign a release that they’re aware that we’re going to sell them,” said Lockard who said that she still has Trump’s authentication.
When asked about Trump’s denial to the Wall Street Journal that he never “wrote a picture,” Lockard seemed perplexed.
“‘Wrote a picture’ is a little bit different than drawing a doodle, I guess. I’m not exactly sure what that terminology means. But I mean, we do have an authentic signature. It was authenticated when we received it.”
Lockard said that Trump’s drawing was done with a gold sharpie.
Other Trump drawings have also found their way into auction houses.
A drawing of a tree with dollar bills falling off of it, signed “Donald Trump,” with a gold sharpie sold for $8,500, and a drawing of the Empire State building sold for $16,000 at Julien’s Auctions in Los Angeles in 2017. That same year, a minimalist sketch of the New York City skyline with a gold marker signature sold for $29,184.
One of the drawings that was auctioned in 2004 has subsequently been donated back to another charity and will be up for auction in September. The winning bidder will receive what Lockard describes as the signed letter of authentication from Trump.
“This should raise a pretty penny,” said Lockard, who is planning on starting the bidding at $10,000. “It’s a great doodle.”
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