Trump’s Old Drawings Resurface as He Denies Epstein Birthday Letter

The Wall Street Journal on Thursday evening reported that President Trump sent a 50th birthday letter to infamous predator Jeffrey Epstein in 2003, containing a signed sketch of a naked woman and the ominous caption, “Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.” Trump denied that the letter was actually him, on the grounds that he had “never wrote a picture” in his life. 

“The Wall Street Journal printed a FAKE letter, supposedly to Epstein. These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don’t draw pictures,” Trump said on Truth Social Thursday night. “I told Rupert Murdoch it was a Scam, that he shouldn’t print this Fake Story. But he did, and now I’m going to sue his ass off, and that of his third rate newspaper. Thank you for your attention to this matter!  DJT”

That is an outright lie. At least five of the president’s own sketches were auctioned off between 1995 and 2020, suggesting that he had an obvious affinity for drawing. In 2005, a very rudimentary drawing he did of the New York City skyline sold for $30,000. In 2006, another basic sketch was auctioned off, this time of the George Washington Bridge. In 2017, his sketch of the Empire State Building was auctioned off for $16,000. And in 2020, his “Money Tree” drawing sold for $8,500. The president has “wrote” many a picture, poking a gaping hole in his defense against the Journal’s reporting. 

The Journal report also detailed a strange dialogue-style note Trump left in the birthday letter to Epstein, written in the third person.

“Voice Over: There must be more to life than having everything,” the note began.

Donald: Yes, there is, but I won’t tell you what it is.

Jeffrey: Nor will I, since I also know what it is. 

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.

This all comes as the president desperately tries to make his base, and the mainstream, forget about Epstein and his deep ties to him. But the deeper he tries to bury it, the more that seems to come to the surface.  

The Trump administration is doing damage control on the visible signs of aging in the president, as seen in his swollen legs and a mysterious bruise on his hand.

On Thursday, White House press secretary Karoline Levitt revealed that the president had emergency heart tests to figure out what was going on and was found to have a vein condition known as chronic venous insufficiency.

“In recent weeks, President Trump noted mild swelling in his lower legs. In keeping with routine medical care and out of an abundance of caution, this concern was thoroughly evaluated by the White House medical unit,” Leavitt said. “The president underwent a comprehensive examination, including diagnostic vascular studies. Bilateral lower extremity venous Doppler ultrasounds were performed and revealed chronic venous insufficiency, a benign and common condition, particularly in individuals over the age of 70.”

“Importantly, there was no evidence of deep vein thrombosis or arterial disease. Laboratory testing included a complete blood count, comprehensive metabolic panel, coagulation profile, D dimer, B type, natriuretic peptide, and cardiac biomarkers. All results were within normal limits. An echocardiogram was also performed and confirmed normal cardiac structure and function. No signs of heart failure, renal impairment, or systemic illness were identified,” she added.

Then she blamed the strange hand bruises on too much hand shaking, an excuse the president has tried many times before.

“Additionally, recent photos of the president have shown minor bruising on the back of his hand. This is consistent with minor soft tissue irritation from frequent hand shaking and the use of aspirin, which is taken as part of a standard cardiovascular prevention regimen. This is a well known and benign side effect of aspirin therapy, and the president remains in excellent health, which I think all of you witness on a daily basis here. So the president wanted me to share that note with all of you.”

The White House later published an email from Trump’s physician which basically reaffirmed Leavitt’s claims that everything was fine with the president’s health.

Chronic venous insufficiency occurs when one’s veins don’t flow correctly and allow blood to become backed up in the vessels, resulting in swelling.

“It’s basically not alarming information, and it’s not surprising,” Harvard Medical School assistant professor Dr. Jeremy Faust told CNN. “This is a pretty normal part of aging, and especially for someone in the overweight to obese category, which is where the president has always been. But the bigger concern … is that symptoms like this do need to be evaluated for more serious conditions, and that is what happened.”

Trump turned 79 last month.

Nick Fuentes, a far-right influencer who’s a fan of Hitler, thinks Donald Trump has gone too far.

Trump’s neo-Nazi former sidekick (no, not Elon Musk) torched the president on his show America First Wednesday night for calling his supporters that were still interested in alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein “weaklings.”

“Fuck you! Fuck you! You suck! You are fat, you are a joke, you are stupid, you are not funny, you are not as smart as you think you are,” Fuentes fumed.

“If you watch my show, you know I’ve been very critical. I’ve never been this far,” Fuentes said. “This just goes to show, this entire thing has been a scam. When we look back on the history of populism in America, we are gonna look back on the MAGA movement as the biggest scam in American history. And the liberals were right, the MAGA supporters were had!”

“When we look back in history we will see Trump as a scam artist,” he added.

To be sure, when a white supremacist says you’re right, it doesn’t mean much. But the longtime Trump supporter’s defection shows just how deep a crack Epstein has cleaved in the MAGA movement.

Despite all of Trump’s efforts to distract from Epstein, MAGA influencers just won’t stop talking about the administration’s toothless investigation. The Justice Department announced last week that the sex offender kept no incriminating “client list,” even though Trump’s attorney general claimed one had been sitting on her desk. Alex Jones, Charlie Kirk, Joe Rogan, Tim Pool, and Candace Owens have also levied attacks against the Trump administration over its shoddy work.

Seventy-eight House Democrats voted Thursday to further deregulate the cryptocurrency industry, which will help make Donald Trump rich.

The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, a bill crafted by and for the crypto industry, passed the House in a 294-134 vote, installing a new regulatory framework for when digital assets should be considered a commodity or a security. But there’s nothing clear about the so-called CLARITY Act.

While the bill provides long-awaited clarity for entrepreneurs and investors, it also grants broad exemptions for decentralized finance actors, gutting federal oversight and allowing crypto thieves, hackers, and scammers to run rampant, according to Americans for Financial Reform.

The CLARITY Act gives the Commodity Futures Trading Commission primary regulatory oversight authority over spot digital commodities, common cryptocurrencies that can be traded immediately and derive their value from blockchain as determined on the spot market, ending years of uncertainty over their regulation.

The CLARITY Act exempts certain digital commodities from registration under the Security and Exchange Commission creating more avenues to sidestep requirements to disclose information to investors and allowing for fraudsters to fundraise without a hint of transparency.

For example, under the CLARITY Act, a non-crypto company could tokenize its assets, placing all of its stock on blockchain and thus evading all SEC regulation.

The legislation includes a major carveout for decentralized finance platforms, yet another money-making scheme the president has embraced. World Liberty Financial (WLFI), is a decentralized finance platform that is majority owned by DT Marks DEFI LCC, a Trump business entity. Trump currently serves as the company’s “Chief Crypto Advocate,” and his sons and other White House employees also stand to get rich—a marked conflict of interest as the president has sweeping powers to conduct crypto-policy.

The legislation also declares that a range of digital assets such as meme coins and non-fungible tokens are neither securities nor commodities, minimizing federal oversight and investor protection. Trump has been criticized for enriching himself off of his $TRUMP memecoin, and conducting a blatant pay-for-access scheme by hosting the top coin buyers at an ultimately underwhelming gala dinner earlier this year.

See which Senate Democrats voted to advance the bill below:

1. Pete Aguilar - California
2. Yassamin Ansari - Arizona
3. Jake Auchincloss - Massachusetts
4. Ami Bera - California
5. Brendan Boyle - Pennsylvania
6. Nikki Budzinski - Illinois
7. Janelle Bynum - Oregon
8. Salud Carbajal - California
9. Mike Conaway - New Jersey
10. Lou Correa - California
11. Jim Costa - California
12. Angine Craig - Minnesota
13. Henry Cuellar - Texas
14. Don Davis - North Carolina
15. Suzan DelBene - Washington
16. Cleo Fields - Louisiana
17. Shomari Figures - Alabama
18. Lois Frankel - Florida
19. Laura Gillen - New York
20. Jared Golden - Maine
21. Dan Goldman - New York
22. Jimmy Gomez - California
23. Tony Gonzalez - Texas
24. Maggie Goodlander - New Hampshire
25. Josh Gottheimer - New Jersey
26. Adam Gray - California
27. Josh Harder - California
28. Steven Horsford - Nevada
29. Chrissy Houlahan - Pennsylvania
30. Jonathan Jackson - Illinois
31. Julie Johnson - Texas
32. Ro Khanna - California
33. Raja Krishnamoorthi - Illinois
34. Greg Landsman - Ohio
35. George Latimer - New York
36. Kevin Lee - Nevada
37. Mike Levin - California
38. Ted Lieu - California
39. Zoe Lofgren - California
40. John Mannion - New York
41. Lucy McBath - Georgia
42. Sarah McBride - Delaware
43. April McClain Delaney - Maryland
44. Kristen McDonald Rivet - Michigan
45. Rob Menendez - New Jersey
46. Dave Min - California
47. Jared Moskowitz - Florida
48. Seth Moulton - Massachusetts
49. Kevin Mullin - California
50. Jimmy Panetta - California
51. Chris Pappas - New Hampshire
52. Nancy Pelosi - California
53. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez - Washington
54. Nellie Pou - New Jersey
55. Josh Riley - New York
56. Raul Ruiz - California
57. Patrick Ryan - New York
58. Brad Schneider - Illinois
59. Hillary Scholten - Michigan
60. Kim Schrier - Washington
61. Terri Sewell - Alabama
62. Mikie Sherrill - New Jersey
63. Lateefah Simon - California
64. Eric Sorenson - Illinois
65. Darren Soto - Florida
66. Greg Stanton - Arizona
67. Haley Stevens - Michigan
68. Marilyn Strickland - Washington
69. Suhas Subramanyam - Virginia
70. Tom Suozzi - New York
71. Shri Thanedar - Michigan
72. Mike Thompson - California
73. Ritchie Torres - New York
74. Derek Tran - California
75. Gabe Vasquez - New Mexico
76. Marc Veasey - Texas
77. Eugene Vindman - Virginia
78. George Whitesides - California

The CLARITY Act is just one stage of what House Republicans have termed “crypto week.” Lawmakers also passed the GENIUS Act Thursday, which will grant “hundreds—perhaps even thousands—of American companies” the power to issue their own bespoke cryptocurrencies, unleashing financial chaos, according to Berkeley economist Barry Eichengreen. The bill passed by a vote of 308-122, with 102 Democrats voting in favor.

This story has been updated.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was caught in a blatant lie Thursday over Donald Trump’s nonsensical threat to place 100 percent “secondary” tariffs on Russian exports, if Moscow failed to resolve its issues with Ukraine in 50 days.

During a press briefing, Leavitt stumbled when asked to account for the president’s paltry plan to impose tariffs on Russia. She’d previously claimed that U.S. sanctions “preclude any meaningful trade” between the two countries, as a means of explaining why Russia was exempt from the president’s sweeping “reciprocal” tariffs.

“Why now? And why do you think that that would make them cave, and come to some sort of peace agreement as it relates to Ukraine?” asked one reporter, pointing out that there was just $3 billion worth of trade between the U.S. and Russia in 2024.

“Three billion dollars is still a lot of money,” Leavitt replied. “And it’s not just tariffs, it’s the secondary sanctions that will be implemented in 50 days.”

But that is the complete opposite of what Leavitt had argued just three months ago. Similarly, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had told Fox News that it wasn’t necessary to place tariffs on Russia because, after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, trade between the U.S. and Russia had effectively dried up.

But that excuse was always bad. While the nearly $3 billion worth of goods from Russia was smaller than other key U.S. trading partners, it was still more than the trade with several countries Trump levied tariffs against, including several uninhabited islands that each received a 10 percent tariff rate.

In the weeks since Leavitt offered her limp excuses, Trump’s impotence in facilitating peace talks between Russia and Ukraine has become increasingly clear, and his promises to end the fighting have disappeared beyond the horizon.