We are currently watching what it is like when Donald Trump’s White House loses control of a narrative, and the truth escapes containment.
From the beginning, when Elon Musk dropped his now-deleted bombshell claim that Trump is “in the Epstein files,” the response from the White House and its supporters in MAGA media has been fascinating. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., abruptly sent lawmakers home early this summer for a month-long break after a handful of Republicans joined with Democrats to vote for the Department of Justice to release the files. Upon returning to Capitol Hill last week, Johnson bizarrely claimed Trump was actually an FBI informant spying on Jeffrey Epstein. The president, meanwhile, sued Rupert Murdoch after the Wall Street Journal reported in July on a letter attributed to Trump for a book Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell compiled for the convicted sex offender’s 50th birthday in 2003. The message included a crude drawing of a naked female figure, with Trump’s signature as pubic hair, along with the message, “We have certain things in common, Jeffrey […] Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.” Trump denied having written the letter, claiming, “I never wrote a picture in my life. I don’t draw pictures of women.” After the Journal published a photo of the letter on Monday, along with a comparison of Trump’s signatures, drawings and commonly used phrases over the years, the White House insisted the signature was a fake.
“It’s very clear President Trump did not draw this picture, and he did not sign it. President Trump’s legal team will continue to aggressively pursue litigation,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a post on X. Taylor Budowich, who serves as White House deputy chief of staff for communications, echoed the sentiment with a sample of Trump signatures meant to discredit the Journal.
“I can tell you my father does not sketch out cartoon drawings,” Eric Trump claimed on Newsmax Monday, while also confusing the Wall Street Journal for the New York Times. Republicans on the House Oversight Committee slammed Democrats for “politicizing information” by rushing to release the subpoenaed documents, and Trump called it a “dead issue.”
Trump’s sycophants in MAGA media, from Charlie Kirk to Matt Gaetz, repeated the same talking points. The usual suspects repeated White House threats to sue the Journal. All Monday evening, reporters, Trump devotees and detractors shared copies of documents he signed on social media and dissected the signatures like they were analyzing the Zapruder film.
Trump’s sycophants in MAGA media, from Charlie Kirk to Matt Gaetz, repeated the same talking points. The usual suspects repeated White House threats to sue the Journal. All Monday evening, reporters, Trump devotees and detractors shared copies of documents he signed on social media and dissected the signatures like they were analyzing the Zapruder film. The prose, some of the president’s media supporters contended, was too poetic and well-punctuated to be written by Trump.
Fox News devoted virtually no on-air coverage to the bombshell developments Monday evening, but the network did lead its digital coverage with former President Bill Clinton’s praise of Epstein’s “childlike curiosity, the drive to make a difference, and the [illegible] of friends.” But even Alan Dershowitz, a former lawyer for both Epstein and the president, whose own birthday note to Epstein was revealed in the release, dismissed Trump’s attempt to censor the book’s release. “I don’t think this lawsuit is going anywhere,” he told Newsmax of Trump’s case against the Journal. And as POLITICO reported, right-wing media’s muffled response has done little to limit the reach of such an explosive story:
A visually-arresting image can sometimes be the spark that sends a big story into the stratosphere — and sure enough, the note is reproduced on the front page of most of the world’s best-read news websites this morning, from the NYT to the BBC, from Mail Online to the Times of India. Even Pop Crave was tweeting it out.
Still, Republicans tried to contain the fallout. “I’m told that it’s fake,” Speaker Johnson told reporters of the message attributed to Trump. Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee told CNN’s Capitol Hill reporter Manu Raju that he thought the signature could be forged, while Nebraska Rep. Don Bacon said such an act was “unlikely, but anything’s possible.” Rep. Ronny Jackson told NOTUS, “I just saw in the news he didn’t have anything to do with it.” Asked if he was curious to learn more about the case, Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan simply said, “No.”
Democrats on the committee also highlighted another page from the birthday book, posting a letter with a photo that they described as “Epstein and a longtime Mar-a-Lago member joking about selling a ‘fully depreciated’ woman to Donald Trump for $22,500.” Below the photo, a hand-written caption states, “Jeffrey showing early talents with money and women! Sells ‘fully depreciated’ [redacted] to Donald Trump for $22,500.”
Monday’s release also included Epstein’s will, entries from his address book and the disgraced financier’s 2007 non-prosecution agreement signed by U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Alex Acosta, who later served as labor secretary in Trump’s first-term Cabinet.
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House Democrats are pushing for the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act to compel the Trump administration to release more documents about Epstein, who died by suicide in a federal prison in 2019, and his alleged sex trafficking operation. Only three other House Republicans, all women, have joined Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie’s effort to force a vote on the legislation. Massie recently told right-wing provocateur James O’Keefe, “I don’t think my colleagues are happy about covering up for pedophiles. But that’s what’s happening. It’s so sick and twisted. The reason they’re doing it is because they’re terrified of Trump’s political machine.” Still, the Republican dismissed Monday’s release of documents. “Having a birthday card from Trump doesn’t help the survivors and the victims,” Massie told reporters. “It doesn’t name an additional new person who could be indicted. I think it’s just a distraction.” Despite staunch GOP opposition, Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., who is spearheading the push to release the Epstein files with Massie, announced that he expects Democrats to reach the 218 votes needed to compel the release of the Epstein files by the end of the month.
After the documents were released, Vice President JD Vance dismissed the revelations. “Democrats don’t care about Epstein victims,” he said on Monday. In July, Vance suggested no such letter existed, echoing Trump’s denial. On CNN, Khanna of California called on Vance to “retract what he said, defaming the Wall Street Journal reporter,” noting the vice president “said it was fake. And now we have the letter.” The Democrat also credited MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell for a July 23 interview with a lawyer for Epstein survivors who suggested the Oversight Committee subpoena Epstein’s estate for the birthday book. Asked if he planned to meet with Epstein survivors, Trump told reporters Tuesday, “I haven’t even thought about that.”
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Monday’s revelations completely undermines the idea, long promoted by Trump and his MAGA surrogates, that former President Joe Biden’s administration weaponized the Justice Department. While there is currently no evidence that Trump was involved in Epstein’s criminal enterprise, the DOJ was sitting on a political gold mine for four years. But because former Attorney General Merrick Garland never brought any criminal indictments, the files were never publicly released. (The specter of former FBI director James Comey’s 2016 revelation of an investigation into then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s handling of classified documents in the eleventh hour of her campaign against Trump seemingly loomed large.)
Until three months ago, Republicans also wanted the files. Now that Trump has flipped the script, the right has fully fallen in line. This should not be surprising, because despite the release of the salacious message and drawing attributed to Trump, none of the essential facts are new.
“I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,” Trump told New York Magazine in 2002. “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.”
