President Donald Trump was forced to confront the Jeffrey Epstein files saga and his alleged birthday letter to the pedophile sex trafficker while taking questions from reporters on the streets of Washington, D.C., on Tuesday evening.
The issue of Trump’s salacious birthday letter hit the headlines once again on Monday after it was released as part of a document dump by the House Oversight Committee.
Speaking outside Joe’s Seafood, near the White House, where Trump was joined by Cabinet members including Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the president was asked about the 50th birthday message that he reportedly sent to his financier friend.
“It’s not my signature and it’s not the way I speak, and anybody that’s covered me for a long time knows that’s not my language,” Trump said.
“It’s nonsense, and frankly, you’re wasting your time,” he added, before accusing reporters of attempting to distract from the numerous successes of his second term in office so far.
The Trump administration has loudly denied claims that the president wrote the message for Epstein, citing differences in the signature and language used.
In a Truth Social post made in July shortly after The Wall Street Journal broke the story, Trump wrote, “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,” before going on to share his intent to sue the paper’s owner, Rupert Murdoch. Trump filed suit against Murdoch and the Journal for $10 billion days later.
In response to the president’s claim that he doesn’t draw pictures, internet users quickly found several other doodles the president had made, including one of the Manhattan skyline that was auctioned off for thousands of dollars.
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has repeated Trump’s assertions, writing in a Tuesday post on X, “As I have said all along, it’s very clear President Trump did not draw this picture, and he did not sign it... This is FAKE NEWS to perpetuate the Democrat Epstein Hoax!”
The birthday message, written inside the outline of a naked woman, features Trump allegedly telling Jeffrey, “We have certain things in common,” and “Enigmas never age” before closing with, “A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday—and may every day be another wonderful secret.”
During the same media stop with reporters, the president was asked if he had any plans to meet with Epstein’s victims.
“Nobody has suggested that. Certainly I don’t like that situation with respect to anybody being abused or hurt. But I haven’t even thought about that,” Trump responded.
Once inside, Trump was met by a group of protesters who chanted, “Free D.C., free Palestine, Trump is the Hitler of our time.” The pacifist feminist organization Code Pink claimed responsibility for the protest, explaining that they staged their protest because “the administration is prioritizing war and the wealthy over the needs of the American people and human rights abroad.”
Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene told reporters last week that she had spoken to the president about a potential meeting with survivors of Epstein’s abuse.
“I look forward to talking with President Trump about these women that I’ve met,” Greene told CNN during a press conference held by lawmakers and Epstein survivors. “I also encouraged him already this morning that he should have these women in the Oval Office. They deserve to be there.”
She continued, “I told him I’d be happy to set that up, arranging with their attorney by sharing his phone number,” adding, “I haven’t got an answer back on that, but I am continuing to encourage him that these are the people that deserve to be in the Oval Office, not any of Jeffrey Epstein’s rich, powerful friends.”
