[spoken in our best George Takei impersonation] “Oh myyyyyyyy…”:
It was Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday, and Ghislaine Maxwell was preparing a special gift to mark the occasion. She turned to Epstein’s family and friends. One of them was Donald Trump.
…
Pages from the leather-bound album—assembled before Epstein was first arrested in 2006—are among the documents examined by Justice Department officials who investigated Epstein and Maxwell years ago, according to people who have reviewed the pages.
…
The letter bearing Trump’s name, which was reviewed by the Journal, is bawdy—like others in the album. It contains several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker. A pair of small arcs denotes the woman’s breasts, and the future president’s signature is a squiggly “Donald” below her waist, mimicking pubic hair.
The letter concludes: “Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.”
In an interview with the Journal on Tuesday evening, Trump denied writing the letter or drawing the picture. “This is not me. This is a fake thing. It’s a fake Wall Street Journal story,” he said.
“I never wrote a picture in my life. I don’t draw pictures of women,” he said. “It’s not my language. It’s not my words.”
He told the Journal he was preparing to file a lawsuit if it published an article. “I’m gonna sue The Wall Street Journal just like I sued everyone else,” he said.[Non-paywalled version here]
If you get the feeling Trump is completely panicked, we won’t blame you a bit:
White House officials called the Wall Street Journal to try to kill a possible coming story about President Donald Trump’s ties to deceased wealth manager and child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, Status News reported on Thursday. … The report claimed Trump was “said to have personally called Emma Tucker, The Journal’s editor-in-chief, to voice his objections.”
Too late, Donald. Too late.
May every day be another wonderful secret.
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) July 17, 2025
The Vice President has thoughts
— Eric Columbus (@ericcolumbus.bsky.social) July 17, 2025 at 8:09 PM
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what these 2 were laughing about. pic.twitter.com/PIIkHkhWnK
— Spencer Hakimian (@SpencerHakimian) July 17, 2025
So did Obama create the “fake” parts of the Epstein files that implicate Trump? Or was it the Wall Street Journal? I’m getting confused
— Judd Legum (@juddlegum.bsky.social) July 17, 2025 at 7:00 PM
It's the smoking gun.
— Kelly F^ckingFuckityFucj (@hidinginplainssite.bsky.social) July 17, 2025 at 8:08 PM
This
Trump to Epstein per WSJ: "May every day be another wonderful secret."
This is a soon-to-be ex-president pic.twitter.com/fCBFDSK8NO
— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) July 17, 2025
DEVELOPING HARD…