As John mentioned in an update to the evening thread, the radical left Wall Street Journal published an exclusive story about Trump perving out with pal Jeffrey Epstein on the occasion of the late pedophile’s 50th birthday. Here’s a gift link to the Journal article and an excerpt:
It was Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday, and Ghislaine Maxwell was preparing a special gift to mark the occasion. She turned to Epstein’s family and friends. One of them was Donald Trump.
Maxwell collected letters from Trump and dozens of Epstein’s other associates for a 2003 birthday album, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
Pages from the leather-bound album—assembled before Epstein was first arrested in 2006—are among the documents examined by Justice Department officials who investigated Epstein and Maxwell years ago, according to people who have reviewed the pages. It’s unclear if any of the pages are part of the Trump administration’s recent review.
The president’s past relationship with Epstein is at a sensitive moment. The Justice Department documents, the so-called Epstein files, and who or what is in them are at the center of a storm consuming the Trump administration. On Wednesday, after angry comments about how the files are a hoax created by Democrats, President Trump lashed out at his own supporters for refusing to let the matter go.
The letter bearing Trump’s name, which was reviewed by the Journal, is bawdy—like others in the album. It contains several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker. A pair of small arcs denotes the woman’s breasts, and the future president’s signature is a squiggly “Donald” below her waist, mimicking pubic hair.
Gross! Trump also allegedly wrote this weird vignette for the birthday book, according the WSJ report:
Inside the outline of the naked woman was a typewritten note styled as an imaginary conversation between Trump and Epstein, written in the third person.
“Voice Over: There must be more to life than having everything,” the note began.
Donald: Yes, there is, but I won’t tell you what it is.
Jeffrey: Nor will I, since I also know what it is.
Donald: We have certain things in common, Jeffrey.
Jeffrey: Yes, we do, come to think of it.
Donald: Enigmas never age, have you noticed that?
Jeffrey: As a matter of fact, it was clear to me the last time I saw you.
Donald: A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.
Trump is losing his shit over this bombshell. He called the WSJ editor and Rupert Murdoch, claimed the drawing and text were fakes and threatened to sue if they printed the story. They printed it anyway.
In an interview with the Journal on Tuesday evening, Trump denied writing the letter or drawing the picture. “This is not me. This is a fake thing. It’s a fake Wall Street Journal story,” he said.
“I never wrote a picture in my life. I don’t draw pictures of women,” he said. “It’s not my language. It’s not my words.”
He told the Journal he was preparing to file a lawsuit if it published an article. “I’m gonna sue The Wall Street Journal just like I sued everyone else,” he said.
Trump was lying when he claimed he’d “never wrote a picture in my life” — he’s auctioned off multiple shitty doodles at charity events (likely for a hefty cut of the take), as media reports immediately noted. The “heavy marker” allegedly used in the drawing is on brand too.
And the pervy vignette reprinted above is exactly his childish, status-obsessed and self-aggrandizing “language.” It would make an appropriate voiceover to accompany the infamous video of Trump and Epstein leering at gyrating NFL cheerleaders.
Trump and Bondi are all over social media performatively vowing to release grand jury transcripts. It’s a sign of weakness, and I think it has absolutely zero chance of quieting the howling mob that they ginned up themselves.
I’m a Democrat in the United States of America in the year of some people’s lord 2025, so I am constitutionally incapable of believing any scandal, no matter how lurid, could bring this genital wart of an administration down. But this ain’t going away, folks.
Open thread.
War for Ukraine Day 1,239: A Brief Thursday Night Update
Aussie Sheila
When Murdoch sniffs weakness he’s all in. Methinks he smells the trouble that trump makes for conservative forces in the Anglo sphere where he has valuable assets, and he has decided trump is more trouble than he is worth. It cost him a landslide against the LNP in Australia, and even UK Labour might be able to make something of it if they can find the nerve.
My thinking re Murdoch is that if he has turned, trump is done.
Princess
Someone said enigmas in the birthday card was code for gamines and I threw up a bit. Vile men.
Aussie Sheila
@Princess:
Of course, they are beyond disgusting. The point however is to destroy them. That is the task.
Betty Cracker
People Magazine:
Shit’s gonna keep coming out. Lots of people knew what was going on.
Deputinize America
Donald, the guy who is on video hanging around Epstein, who lauded Epstein’s taste in beautiful young women on video, is clearly not the same Donald who we see now – don’t believe that past Donald – he’s a liar.
As an aside, I’m rereading Shirer’s Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. The parallels are similar, with equivalent cowardice and toadies, but somehow, we’re seeing a combo of Hindenburg and Hitler in one very defective man.
Betty Cracker
Melting down.
Splitting Image
Reality appears to have gone into reruns.
A high-rolling modeling agent who was accused of multiple counts of sexual assault and trafficking underage girls has apparently committed suicide in his cell while awaiting trial.
Nope, not that guy. This guy.
Aussie Sheila
@Betty Cracker:
Yes! This shit is going to continue to rain down on that disgusting arsehole. The spigots have opened. The shit is going to roll.
Now, the best thing to be doing is to ensure it spreads far and wide.
And no ‘pearl clutching, but the norms’ BS.
Just go after him and every effing podcaster and gop sycophants you can.
With bells on.
Good Luck and god speed.
prostratedragon
“Don’t Do Anything (I Wouldn’t Do),” Angelo Badalamenti
Baud
What do people who talk about the administration being brought down mean?
He’ll never resign and this Congress will never impeach and convict no matter what.
Whatever is in those files. I’d be surprised if it is unassailable evidence of Trump raping minors.
Mai Naem mobile
Tfg could do one big favor for this country on his way out – denaturalize Rupert Murdoch & family. After all, SCOTUS has said he can do anything he wants to. The Mother Jones piece from a few years ago has one of FOX’s upper management people on the flight logs several times. Sure seems like these people knew this stuff and were okay holding it back.
Aussie Sheila
@Baud:
I can’t believe you are still waiting for the ineffable ‘something’ that will bring him down. It’s not going to happen. What needs to be done is the constant drip, drip, drip about the ‘Epstein Scandal’.
It won’t result in his impeachment of course. But it will undermine normie confidence in his unimpeachability in the world of popular opinion.
And for an election, that is important.
MagdaInBlack
This has certainly blown up much more than I expected last week when it started to break loose, and I am still enjoying every minute of it.
The Guardian had a piece yesterday I’m sure someone already mentioned, telling me “They’re burning the red hats!”
I’m happy to loan them a lighter if they need it.
Baud
@Aussie Sheila:
Who is the “you” in your comment
I agree with the rest.
JoyceH
I agree that stuff is going to keep coming out, because unlike the pizza place, there really IS stuff to come out. And I think this is going to leave a mark. Because the thing about MAGA, not just “Trump voters” but real MAGA, is that they’re either Q-Anon or have friends and family who are. And the shadowy cabal of child-abusing elites who secretly run the world is their foundation myth.
I doubt if Trump even realized that they’d cast him as their savior who was going to expose and destroy the cabal, but once he caught on he sure never denied it. And the stuff that’s coming out make it pretty clear that at the very least, Trump was aware that his bestie Jeffrey had a thing for teenagers and didn’t consider it a dealbreaker.
Aussie Sheila
@Baud:
I was addressing your comment that nothing will bring him down. Of course there isn’t a magic ‘button’ that will do so. But there’s plenty of public opprobrium that will fuck over the gop next year, and with some smart politics by the Democratic Party, who knows, this might be able to be smeared all over them for at least two years.
MagdaInBlack
@JoyceH: “Foundation Myth” is a perfect description.
Baud
@JoyceH:
Abhorrence of child molesters and abusers might be the only thing our side has in common with them.
Of course what still separates us is their eagerness to accuse innocent people of heinous crimes (Epstein is a rare exception).
Aussie Sheila
@Baud:
But in this instance the accusations are against people who can be credibly accused of such. In Epstein’s case absolutely. In trump’s case?
Well, that might have to be made in the court of public opinion.
Baud
@Aussie Sheila:
I posed a question to people who use that phrase, asking what they meant by it.
We agree that its highly unlikely that Trump will be removed from office.
DMcK
@Baud:
@Baud:
It appears to be causing a good deal of consternation among his base, and let’s face it, they have been and will continue to be a cancer on the rest of us. Hopefully more of this will…well, not teach them a lesson they’re incapable of learning, but at least test their resolve as they are forced to reconfigure their alternate version of reality. Confusion to the enemy!
JoyceH
And I have to say I’m rather proud of the news media for not falling for Trump’s deflection to release the grand jury transcripts. Didn’t even buy him a news cycle, much less the months and months of waiting for a judge’s ruling on what they can release. Almost as soon as he tweeted the thing about releasing the transcripts, commentators were pointing out that the grand jury transcripts were the tiniest fraction of the whole file, AND the only part of the file that wasn’t within the power of the executive branch to release. Ball’s back in your court, dude.
Baud
@DMcK:
Yes, this is a good thing, all things considered.
I’m also confident he’ll remain in office and Dems will be blamed by some for blowing the opportunity.
But I also believe all predictions are bunk, including mine. So we’ll see. All we can do is to keep pressing.
Suburban Mom
He’s not quitting. I will happily settle for Trump endorsements becoming sufficiently toxic to tip the midterm election.
Aussie Sheila
@Suburban Mom:
That’s the ticket. Make the gop brand toxic.
’Child trafficking enablers’. Plaster it. Everywhere.
You know they would do it to you.
DMcK
@Aussie Sheila:
Yes, this. Hang it around the necks of the entirety of the GOP and their vile, ignorant supporters. Shame is a powerful weapon to wield in cases like this.
Baud
While he won’t be removed, there’s always the effect of this on his increasingly worsening health to consider.
Baud
@Aussie Sheila:
It has the virtue of being true.
hotshoe
@Baud: i dunno what other folks expect is going to happen to Dumpster. I don’t expect any specific thing, myself, but what I hope is that he has a panic attack from the stress, thinks he’s having a heart attack, and feels that if he’s no longer adored by the crowds he doesn’t want to be Prez anymore, and just up and quits.
It’s realistic for you to say he’ll never resign — the blow to his pride seems like it would be too much — but he has been ill lately, and he really might be afraid to die in office.
I guess the only thing he loves is being the center of attention, but at the same time he might be in despair about people focusing on his ugly IV-bruised hand and his deformed ankles.
We know he often takes impulsive action based on whatever he last heard on Fox, so maybe some Fox caster saying “Trump should retire to the peace and privacy he deserves” would put the idea in his head long enough for him to actually quit.
Someone, quick, put the resignation letter in front of him, hand him the Sharpie, bye bye!
MattF
The question one thinks of asking is ‘Where is the margin?’, i.e., where is the line dividing pro- from anti-, who is teetering on that line, trying to decide. But in this case, both sides of the line and the line itself are, quite literally, bug-nutz whacko. It’s a real analytical dilemma.
Nukular Biskits
@Baud:
And that in and of itself is a problem.
IMHO, every local media outlet should be asking local and state Trump-supporting Republicans if they support and agree with Trump on this.
And, at least here in MS, we get shit like this instead:
Aussie Sheila
@DMcK:
Yes shame is a powerful weapon in polities where there is a strong sense of mutual recognition and shared values. In places where there isn’t a sense of social solidarity and mutual recognition I wonder if it still works at scale?
In any case, it should be wielded as far and wide as it can. The shame of not just trump, but the gop as a whole, should be hung around their necks for a generation.
Baud
@Nukular Biskits:
Hey, don’t diss that. Ice cream is the secret society’s symbol for Joe Biden. MSU is signaling the resistance.
Operation Blueberry and Sweet Potato is nigh.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: I think the clause preceding the offending phrase unambiguously indicates I’m not seriously predicting the administration will be “brought down” by this scandal. That said, I think it’s entirely possible it could paralyze the administration as Trump flails and rages. It could cover the Republican Party, now a wholly owned subsidiary of the Trump Organization, in toxic slime that will bury them in the next election.
While we’re wishing upon a star, I think it’s also possible the scandal could inspire palace intrigue that sets Trump toadies warring against one another in destructive ways. Maybe the scandal will catch out other rich weirdos who are trying to destroy U.S. democracy. Institutional actors who have sucked up to Trump for their own reasons might rethink that stance, including perhaps media companies, universities, maybe even the Supreme Court, etc.
Geoduck
Whoever runs the Democrats.org Bluesky account did pile on with a joke.
Aussie Sheila
@Baud:
Yes, it’s true. But it has no virtue if no one broadcasts it far and wide. And I mean ‘broadcast’ it. Congressional members can do so from the safety of their immunity from suits if they speak from the House.
Let them do so. Far and wide. And the Press can’t be prosecuted for reporting Congressional debate and speech. Let’s see what the 1A is made of. In the ‘oldest democracy in the world’ eh?
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Thanks for the answer to my question. And it’s a good answer.
My question wasn’t directed at you specifically. I’ve just seen that phrasing or similar phrasing used and not explained. Leads me to believe different people have different expectations.
Nukular Biskits
@Baud: LOL
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
Trump has been riding and egging on this movement for a decade now and is finally finding our what happens when he gets on the wrong side of it. There’s nothing he can say that can’t be spun as more cover up. Even if he releases all the files at this point everyone will suspect they’re fakes.
This is what comes of undermining faith in institutions – people used to find the pronouncements of the DOJ about what’s factual and not convincing but he spent a decade undermining their credibility so nobody believes the AG is telling the truth. Josh Marshall pointed this out the other day
I also think parts of his base are starting to wake up to the fact that he’s screwing them over in favor of the super rich and to line his own pockets and just because he has no idea what he’s doing or how it affects non-rich Americans. So it’s the Epstein stuff but more resentment is behind this stuff that just the Epstein stuff.
I’m sure he thought he could lead all his supporters by the nose through this just like everything else but he may have crossed the point of no return with at least some of them. Now that he’s on the wrong side of things there’s nothing that will prove he’s not part of the conspiracy because nothing proves anything in that world.
Aussie Sheila
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
Let’s hope so. But God helps those that help themselves, or so Calvin (?) is purported to have said.
Make this shit stick to the aresehole. Make your Representatives speak about it from Congress.
Just bring it.
Another Scott
@Baud: Another thing that may unite us and most of them is a dislike of rich NYC elites. That aspect of 47 got buried for a lot of them because his handlers built up others – the fake tough guy, the fake truth teller, the fake smart guy who knows how to fix things, the fake care for little people, the fake protector of Social Security and Medicare, the fake master of business and the US economy, etc.
Once they see that there’s truth behind some of the tropes about rich guys from NYC, they’re not going to be pleased…
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Aussie Sheila: I agree. And it doesn’t hurt that Trump has surrounded himself with creeps. Peter Thiel and Musk are creepy, RRK Jr is creepy…I guarantee that Russell Vogt guy has skeletons. Speaker Johnson is a walking stereotype of a pervy youth minister. Start asking why all these creeps are propping up Epstein’s pal. Hang it around the whole GOP that they rubber stamp everything these creeps want.
Baud
@Another Scott:
We disagree there. The idea that they didn’t know Trump was a rich NYC elite doesn’t sound credible to me
They just didn’t care because Trump is a bigot.
Another Scott
@Geoduck: I’ve seen that several places.
I seemingly am missing an underlying reference to popular culture because I don’t get it. Can you explain?
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Aussie Sheila
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
Yes, all of that. But it will take people of real political skill to weave it together and hang it around the necks of the gop.
I haven’t seen anyone yet with that kind of skill. Or rather, I haven’t seen a group/party with the necessary focus of purpose to make the public ‘kill’.
Deputinize America
What bugs me is this – from the time I was about 17 and a half, even 16 year olds seemed way too young for me. While it was the legal age of consent, I judged the shit out of guys 19 and up for trying to get with girls who were that young.
I’m wondering how many people are around who’d give a free pass to 40 and 50-somethings (and above) to do that. I’d like to think there isn’t a constituency that thinks that way, but who the fuck knows anymore, now that we’re in the post-Weimar consolidation phase.
hotshoe
@Another Scott:
answer seen in another bluesky post:
each red pointy circle is used to denote the location of a sexual perpetrator, as they were used by Kendrick Lamar for his song “Not Like Us” [used on the cover art for the single, with a google-maps view of the roof of Drake’s mansion]
Aussie Sheila
@Deputinize America:
I think there are plenty that don’t think there’s anything wrong with that kind of behaviour. It isn’t confined to any polity or social layer. The only thing that keeps it tamped down is strong social disapproval and social sanctions including jail time for those that choose to indulge themselves.
That is why the current US imbroglio needs to be stirred and dealt with by social contempt and jail time.
p.a.
Ironic that the stupidest part of his coalition, the ones that really believe in this massive worldwide conspiracy (if it’s massive it’ll never be a successful conspiracy) are the ones to shake his new reich, while the ones who are smart enough to know the theory is just a useful political weapon are in the crosshairs.
Another Scott
@hotshoe: Ah.
👍
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
BellyCat
@Princess: You’re safe. Trump is clearly not bright enough for this sort of word play.
Betty
@Baud: I believe his health will do him in. The pressure is getting to him, and there is now physical evidence of some kind of cardiovascular problem.
prostratedragon
BellyCat
This and he is a successful rule breaker. These two Venn circles are not a perfect overlap for *all* of his supporters. Driving the wedge in where there is space to do so just might peel off enough supporters to tip the nation back to sanity in the next election.
Whether this is hopium or actually possible remains to be seen. But it’s all we got atm. So…. FORGE AHEAD!
dc
They only abhor them if they aren’t their people (like their “youth” ministers, their politicians, etc.).
Matt McIrvin
@Princess:
That’s way too clever for Donald Trump. But it’s a good shot.
Matt McIrvin
@Betty: The cardiovascular problem sounded like pretty normal old-guy stuff to me.
JML
@Matt McIrvin: considering how they constantly lie about his health, why take them seriously now that this is something minor and normal? Could easily be a “we need to throw something plausible out there because there’s something real going on that we can’t cover up any longer”.
Glidwrith
@Splitting Image: Hmmm, article is three years ago. When did Epstein suicide?
Proverb: once is chance, twice coincidence, three times is enemy action.
Glidwrith
Ah, Epstein un-alived himself in 2019.
brantl
@hotshoe: And he won’t remember that the Smith-led cases can then put him in prison?
Glidwrith
@Deputinize America: There’s enough of a constituency that various red state lawmakers keep trying to lower the age for marriage to 14.
hotshoe
@brantl:
Who knows what he remembers, or not.
Seems to me, what you’re suggesting, is that Trump has only two alternatives:
Die in office, before 2029 to avoid trials/prison
OR
Plan to stay in office beyond Jan 2029 to avoid trials/prison (rewrite the Constitution, borrow a crown from Charles, get John Roberts to coronate him … )
But I guess that Dumpster never worries about prison. Why would he worry? He’s always skated with no real consequences.
What he has to worry about now is his body “betraying” him. Haha he’s mortal after all and his feet hurt :)
XeckyGilchrist
Live by the Comet Ping-pong, die by the Comet Ping-pong
Shalimar
@Deputinize America: The only positive thing I can say about that is that at least the combo psychopath is near Hindenburg’s age and not Hitler’s.
Princess
@Matt McIrvin: Too clever for Trump — I figured it was Epstein’s line.
Matt McIrvin
@Princess: Could definitely see Epstein, who sought smart-guy cachet, thinking it was a delightful jape.
Eduardo
So Wall Street and Silicon Valley supported Juan Domingo thinking they could control him/he was going to be good for them. Elon Musk, the stupidest amateur politician the world ever knew being the poster boy for that kind of ahistorical thinking.
And now they are scared: because of tariffs, and state and institutional power destruction, and Powell and in general because Juan Domingo’s personalistic and hyper corrupt management of the economy and foreign relations is really bad for business and hey, they are also scared for their own freedoms, so everyone is already nostalgic for the Kamala admin that never was.
And that gives me some hope this shit ends up fucking him up at least somehow.
All of us from Wall Street to the green card holder who got in a brawl when he was 17 are in a race to topple him before the night sets in.
RevRick
@Baud: Maybe there isn’t unimpeachable evidence that Donald raped underaged girls, but he sure as hell keeps self-incriminating. He acts like whatever is buried in the slime represents an existential threat.
Before this broke, I figured Democrats would hang the Big, Ugly Abomination albatross around the necks of their opponents. But now, if Republicans stonewall the “investigation” that is another punch that Democrats can land.
It will be interesting to see when, if ever, Republicans in vulnerable swing districts join the chorus of releasing the files.
wonkie
I’m doing my bit by sharing everything on FB. I don’t see it having any effect though.
On the other hand, a lot of people are, in my opinion, more moved by stupid shit than by moral, ethical, or legal issues, so maybe this stupid shit will matter. (BTW I’m not saying the pedophilia or the protection of the wealthy is stupid shit. I mean this is stupid shit because it has been FUCKING OBVIOUS FOR YEARS AND YEARS THAT TRUMP WAS A PERV. )
I get that the current uproar is because he used lies about the Epstein files to rile up his idiot base voters and now, having wiped them into a frenzy of anticipation he has denied them their opportunity to climax and also seems to be in the files himself. I get that. So I guess he made them look stupid to themselves for falling for his con?
But isn’t that what MAGGOTS do all the fucking time? They fell for the con about voting fraud, about Rethuglicans caring about deficits, about Rethuglicans cutting their taxes, about Rethuglicans protecting Medicaid, about targeting criminals for deportation–isn’t “gullible for any Rethuglican crap” the definition of MAGGOT? So why this as the breaking point?
Well I hope it is.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Glidwrith: Proverb? I thought that was Goldfinger’s motto.
Gloria DryGarden
Lighting a candle for all the young women who personally experienced the rapes and trafficking.
It’s something one carries forward, the feelings and harmful aftermath. It’s one of the main causes of ptsd, aside from war and car/vehicle accidents.
The Unmitigated Gaul
@Eduardo:
“All of us from Wall Street to the green card holder who got in a brawl when he was 17 are in a race to topple him before the night sets in.”
Priceless.