That the current president enjoyed a long, close friendship with infamous socialite, financier, human trafficker, and pedophile Jeffrey Epstein is no longer up for debate. In 2002, at the height of his influence, a New York Magazine profile of Epstein featured a glowing review of him from his close friend, the future two-term president.
“I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy,” Trump told the magazine. “It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”
From the early 1990s to the early 2000s, Epstein accrued a network of high-profile politicians, intellectuals, and businessmen, behaving as part-matchmaker, part-manager, and, at times, trafficker of underage women to some of the world’s most powerful men alongside his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell. His associates included Harvard lawyer Alan Dershowitz, Stephen Hawking, former President Bill Clinton, future President Donald Trump, and British royal Prince Andrew, among others. Dershowitz and Andrew eventually faced civil lawsuits for sexual assault relating to Epstein, and only the latter settled.
In 2019, before he could be prosecuted on sex trafficking charges, Epstein died in his prison cell. Following what many have criticized as a shoddy FBI investigation, NYPD detective Herman Weisberg described authorities as having “[taken] at face value that it was a suicide with no foul play whatsoever.” Epstein’s death was officially classified a suicide, though both Maxwell and brother Mark Epstein believe he was murdered.
The White House has defended Trump’s association with Epstein by claiming their falling out around 2004 was due to his discovery of Epstein’s pedophilia. This speculation is contradicted by the president’s own comments in July of this year, where he stated that he had, in reality, gotten tired of Epstein “stealing” women away from Mar-a-Lago.
Early in 2025, following bold campaign promises made by President Trump to publicize the “Epstein Files,” conservative influencers flocked to the White House to celebrate their imminent release. These influencers were photographed holding bulky binders – supposedly full of evidence – given to them by Attorney General Pam Bondi. Such “Epstein Files” have yet to be released in their entirety.
In June, following a series of cagey and standoffish responses from the president regarding Epstein, Elon Musk solidified his political divorce from the president by tweeting: “Time to drop the really big bomb: @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That’s the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!”
The following month, the Department of Justice publicized surveillance footage of Epstein’s cell block from the night of his death, which was found to be missing the minute preceding midnight. Further analysis showed the video had been tampered with, and that the Department of Justice had given a misleading description of the video and a false explanation of the missing minute.
Later that month, the Wall Street Journal published an article describing a now-infamous 50th-birthday letter Trump addressed to Epstein in 2003, containing a rough sketch of a nude woman along with suggestive comments. The President denied authorship, contradicting handwriting and language analysis. The $10 billion defamation suit that followed, which the Journal has filed a motion to dismiss, claims the newspaper “concocted” their story.
Yet in September, images of the birthday book containing the infamous letter were released from the Epstein estate by order of the House Oversight Committee. In it, Trump describes sharing a “wonderful secret” with his friend Jeffrey. He “won’t tell” what it is, but notes “enigmas” that “never age.” The content of this secret that never ages is suggested by the letter’s very form; a Sharpie drawing of a nude female body with small breasts girds the text, with “Donald” signed where a pubic area would be.
When reading this letter, a thoughtful commentator of the current political moment must objectively ask themselves four questions. Are the contents of this letter a description of criminal activity, or do they at least suggest it? Further, if the letter has nothing to hide, and hints at no knowledge of or participation in Epstein’s crimes, why the strange and suggestive wording – and why has it been treated with such secrecy? And most importantly: does this drawing resemble the body of an adult woman?
If Trump and Epstein’s relationship was entirely innocent, there are seemingly few reasonable explanations for the president’s repeated denials, his billion-dollar lawsuits against journalistic agencies, Musk’s claims on X, the DOJ’s statements directly contradicted by evidence, and Trump’s stated openness to pardon Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.
Furthermore, if the letter implies no wrongdoing, which the president has a personal interest and a public responsibility to prove, why have only four House Republicans (along with all Democrats) signed Rep. Thomas Massie’s discharge petition to force the release of all Epstein case materials – a move the president called part of a “Democrat hoax”? Additionally, why has Speaker Mike Johnson delayed the swearing-in of Representative-Elect Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.), who would mark the petition’s deciding 218th signature? All that, to protect a famously scandal-resistant man from the consequences of … a dirty joke?
When the current government shutdown ends and Rep. Grijalva signs the petition, the American public will likely know little more than they already did. Whatever censored, redacted, and possibly doctored documents are released, the truth will remain for those with the tenacity to uncover it and the sense of self-sacrifice to propagate it. The reality of Trump and Epstein’s relationship – whether mundane or as earth-shatteringly disgusting as the birthday letter seems to suggest – must be public knowledge. The opportunity to fairly uncover and prosecute the extent of the president’s proven and unproven crimes came and went with the Biden administration. What remains is a public consciousness towards what is true and a willingness to fight those who victimize the vulnerable – to speak out in the face of retaliation, when others shrink in fear.
Image by Joe Flood from Flickr
