'Totally fake': Trump and MAGA melt down over 'hit piece' about Epstein birthday card

18 Jul 2025, 01:06 by https://www.facebook.com/17108852506 · AlterNet

U.S. President Donald Trump gestures during a press conference at a NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands June 25, 2025. REUTERS/Yves Herman TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
U.S. President Donald Trump gestures during a press conference at a NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands June 25, 2025. REUTERS/Yves Herman TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
Carl Gibson
July 17, 2025 | 09:06PM ETBank

The recent Wall Street Journal story detailing a racy message President Donald Trump allegedly wrote to notorious financier Jeffrey Epstein has both Trump and some of his biggest supporters up in arms.

In 2003, Trump reportedly typed a message to Epstein for his 50th birthday that imagined a conversation between the two, in which the eventual 45th and 47th president of the United States called the soon-to-be convicted pedophile a "pal." The message was apparently framed by a hand-drawn outline of a naked woman, with Trump saying the two men had "certain things in common." On Truth Social, the president vowed to take the Journal, its parent company NewsCorp and owner Rupert Murdoch to court over the story, calling it "false, malicious and defamatory." He added that he viewed the vaunted conservative newspaper as a "Disgusting and Filthy Rag."

On his official X account, Vice President JD Vance called the Journal's article "complete and utter bulls---" and said the paper should be "ashamed for publishing it." Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) also weighed in, and tweeted a hastily-drawn image of a naked stick figure woman with the text: "Please don't show this to the Wall Street Journal. It is a hand sketch. They may think I'm a sex trafficker." In a separate tweet, she called the Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper a "flop" and that "Trump should sue."

"I’m calling bulls--- on this Trump 'birthday letter' to Epstein. It’s totally fake," tweeted pro-Trump influencer Laura Loomer. "Everyone who actually KNOWS President Trump knows he doesn’t type letters. He writes notes in big black Sharpie. Trust me, I would know."

"This is the dumbest attempted hit piece I've ever read," SiriusXM host Megyn Kelly wrote on X.

"This is not how Trump talks at all," tweeted Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk. "I don't believe it."

MAGA-aligned social media personality Mike Cernovich — who is known for propagating the far-right "Pizzagate" conspiracy theory — lamented that "the fake news will flood the zone with hoaxes" due to Trump's inner circle giving him bad advice on how to handle the Epstein controversy. He wrote in a separate tweet that Trump was "f----d over badly" and that "those of who you told us to shut up f----d over MAGA big time."