Is it really ‘clear’ the Trump-Epstein birthday letter is fake?

The “bawdy” birthday letter from Donald Trump to Jeffrey Epstein, which the Wall Street Journal reported the existence of in July, has been released for all to see. The bawdiness is somewhat wanting – the “small arcs” of the naked woman’s breasts which the Journal described are indeed very small. There’s nothing explicit in its imaginary dialogue between the two men, which begins with a pensive “voice over” saying “There must be more to life than having everything.” It’s creepily cryptic, at worst. 

Trump said in July that the letter was a “fake thing’ and a “fake Wall Street Journal story.” He filed a $10 billion lawsuit against the Journal after the initial story, which did not feature a picture of the letter, calling it “fake and defamatory.” 

J.D. Vance tweeted, “Where is this letter? Would you be shocked to learn they never showed it to us before publishing it? Does anyone honestly believe this sounds like Donald Trump?” And last night, Trump’s Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt tweeted, “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.”

Is it so clear? The letter has not been authenticated, though the “Donald” signature resembles Trump’s signature on other documents from around the same time and the sketch resembles Trump’s thick, Sharpie style. Even if the letter is real, it wouldn’t alone be an indictment of Trump, whose friendship with Epstein in the early 2000s is already well known. Like the overconfident and unfulfilled promise to release the Epstein client list, a similarly proud approach of “deny, deny, deny” has left the President in a difficult position now that the letter has been released.

The “birthday book” containing the letter, which the Journal said was seen by the Justice Department during its investigation of Epstein years ago, also features letters from Epstein’s family members and public figures including Bill Clinton and Alan Dershowitz. It’s one among several documents subpoenaed by Representative James Comer, chair of the House Oversight Committee. These include Epstein’s last will and testament, contacts from his address book and a non-prosecution agreement between Epstein and the State Attorney’s Office for Florida’s Southern District.

“It’s appalling Democrats on the Oversight Committee are cherry-picking documents and politicizing information received from the Epstein Estate today,” Comer said of the bipartisan committee. “President Trump is not accused of any wrongdoing and Democrats are ignoring the new information the Committee received today.” Despite the eagerness on the left to draw easy interpretations from a very cryptic letter, it alone doesn’t tell us very much beyond offering an insight into the President’s mind, which was as perplexing in 2003 as it is today: as Trump writes in the letter, “Enigmas never age – have you noticed that?”