Donald Trump’s illustrated and signed 2003 birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein has been delivered to Congress by Epstein’s estate.
The message from Trump to his one-time pal, which he has denied writing, is an imagined dialogue between the two of them which concludes with the line: “Happy Birthday—and may every day be another wonderful secret.”
Around the words is a woman’s silhouette drawn in black. Trump’s signature reads simply “Donald” below his typed name.
The Wall Street Journal, which had previously reported on the letter’s contents, published the letter Monday.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
In a statement on X, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted that “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,” she continued. “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!”
Vice President JD Vance also rushed to Trump’s defense.
“The Democrats don’t care about Epstein,” he wrote on X. “They don’t even care about his victims. That’s why they were silent about it for years. The only thing they care about is concocting another fake scandal like Russiagate to smear President Trump with lies. No one is falling for this BS.”
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer likewise accused Democrats of “cherry-picking documents and politicizing information” from Epstein’s estate.
In July, the Journal reported that the letter was part of a leather-bound album compiled for Epstein, the dead sex offender, by his business partner Ghislaine Maxwell for his 50th birthday.
Trump claimed he had no part in the letter or the drawing.
“This is not me. This is a fake thing. It’s a fake Wall Street Journal story,” he told the publication. “I never wrote a picture in my life. I don’t draw pictures of women.”
Trump also insisted on Truth Social shortly after the story went live: “These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don’t draw pictures.”
But the president’s denial was immediately called into question when several of his past drawings of buildings resurfaced.
Trump, in his 2008 book Never Give Up: How I Turned My Biggest Challenges into Success, described how he typically produces drawings for charity and that “it takes me a few minutes to draw something, in my case, it’s usually a building or a cityscape of skyscrapers.”
“Art may not be my strong point,” he wrote, “but the end result is help for people who need it.”
Prior to publication of the Journal story, Trump threatened to sue for defamation. The next day, he filed a $10 billion lawsuit against publisher Dow Jones, parent company News Corp, and the story’s reporters.
The letter, which had been held by Epstein’s estate, was turned over as a result of a subpoena from the House Oversight Committee.
Epstein was first arrested in 2006 for child prostitution, and in 2019 died in his jail cell after his arrest for sex trafficking minors. Trump told reporters this July that he grew apart from Epstein in the mid-2000s after learning he had hired some workers from Mar-a-Lago.
“When I heard about it, I told him, I said: ‘Listen, we don’t want you taking our people—whether it was spa or not spa—I don’t want you to take our people,’" Trump said. “And he was fine, and then not too long after that, he did it again. And I said: ‘Out of here!’”
Years before, when the two were socializing, Trump told New York Magazine: “I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it--Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”
Last week, Trump said efforts to shed light on Epstein were a Democratic “hoax,” even though some Republicans are also calling for transparency.
