At the height of Donald Trump’s scandal surrounding notorious late sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein, the Wall Street Journal in July reported that the president had written a cryptic message wishing Epstein a happy 50th birthday in 2003. The note was reportedly contained within a marker drawing of a woman’s naked torso.
Trump insisted this was a “fake thing.” “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.” Vice President JD Vance called it “complete and utter bullshit.”
The president filed a lawsuit against the newspaper in hopes of, in his words, suing owner Rupert Murdoch’s “ass off, and that of his third rate paper.”
Murdoch and the Journal’s asses may live to see another day, as the paper on Monday released a photo of the letter.
In response to a subpoena from the House Oversight Committee, the Journal reports, lawyers for Epstein’s estate provided Congress a copy of the birthday book in which the letter was reportedly contained. And lo and behold, the document whose existence Trump vehemently denied appears exactly as reported—complete with its bizarre type-written note and bawdy drawing, including Trump’s signature scribbled to mimic pubic hair.
The message is an imagined dialogue between Trump and Epstein, in which the two knowingly express awareness that there’s “more to life than having everything,” while refusing to utter what exactly that secret something is. “We have certain things in common, Jeffrey,” says Donald in the dialogue, to which Jeffrey replies, “Yes, we do, come to think of it.” Donald answers: “Enigmas never age, have you noticed that?”
Trump signed off the message by calling Epstein a “pal,” wishing him happy birthday, and writing “may every day be another wonderful secret.”
White House spokesperson Taylor Budowich took to X to claim that the signature on the letter is not Trump’s—citing recent pictures in which the president’s autograph looks different. But reporters were quick to produce examples from the 1990s and 2000s in which the signature is a clear match.
It’s not the first time Trump has apparently been caught in a lie regarding the notorious late sex criminal, with whom he was formerly close friends. The Journal’s revelation is sure to complicate the president’s so-far-futile efforts to sweep the Epstein affair under the rug.
The post Here’s Trump’s Birthday Letter to Epstein—With His Signature on It appeared first on New Republic.
