NewsNation host Chris Cuomo sided with President Donald Trump Thursday after The Wall Street Journal ran a story claiming Trump had sent a racy note for Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday in 2003.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Ghislaine Maxwell was preparing a gift for Epstein and reached out to dozens of his friends, including Trump, for letters to include in a 2003 birthday album.
The note Trump allegedly sent, which he has denied, contained typewritten text framed in the outline of a naked woman. The image appears to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker. It is signed “Donald” just below her waist, the outlet said.
The letter concludes: “Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.”
In response to the story, Trump posted on Truth Social, “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. I told Rupert Murdoch it was a Scam, that he shouldn’t print this Fake Story. But he did, and now I’m going to sue his ass off, and that of his third rate newspaper.”
Donald J. Trump Truth Social 07.17.25 09:57 PM EST pic.twitter.com/aTcnYpv9sx
— Fan Donald J. Trump Posts From Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) July 18, 2025
Another Trump Truth Social post said, “The Editor of The Wall Street Journal, Emma Tucker, was told directly by Karoline Leavitt, and by President Trump, that the letter was a FAKE, but Emma Tucker didn’t want to hear that. Instead, they are going with a false, malicious, and defamatory story anyway. President Trump will be suing The Wall Street Journal, NewsCorp, and Mr. Murdoch, shortly.”
Cuomo responded to the controversy on his program Thursday night, stating, “I get that he’s pissed off, OK? And he’s not wrong. This Wall Street Journal piece is a hack job, OK? … And it’s so stupid, OK?”
“The Epstein story is about abusing kids who didn’t have the power or agency to do anything about it, that rich and powerful people may have known it was going on, and they got away with it. That’s the story, OK? It’s not that Trump liked a scumbag, OK?” he added.
🚨Chris Cuomo goes SCORCHED EARTH on the Wall Street Journal for their fake “bombshell” Epstein letter:
“This Wall Street Journal piece is a hack job… The letter is meaningless. You put out the piece anyway, and there’s no light on what really matters. It’s so stupid.” pic.twitter.com/m454YGzvFS
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) July 18, 2025
Trump and Epstein had been friends in the 1990s and early 2000s; however, around 2004, they severed ties as they became rivals in the Palm Beach real estate market, according to The Washington Post.
CNBC reported in 2020 that Trump revoked Epstein’s Mar-a-Lago membership late in the 2000s after he harassed a member’s teenage daughter.
Epstein’s banishment from Mar-a-Lago came months before he pleaded guilty in 2008 to Florida state charges of soliciting prostitution and soliciting prostitution of a minor.
Cuomo further observed, regarding the birthday letter story, that it “doesn’t move the needle [politically] in the country.”
“It’s going to make you some money, Rupert — great for you, just what you need. But this is why we can’t get anywhere. The guy says, ‘I didn’t write the letter.’ The letter is meaningless! You put out the piece anyway, and there’s no light on what really matters,” he concluded.
The Washington Examiner’s Byron York made a similar observation, recounting on social media that the Washington Post published a story at 4:03 p.m. on Thursday, before the Journal’s story came out, of known contacts between Trump and Epstein, all of which ended in 2004.
The Washington Post’s fact-checker Glenn Kessler wrote: “No credible allegation has emerged to connect Trump to any of Epstein’s crimes. If the full file is ever released, we are confident that no connection would be found.”
“Rest assured — if Trump were prominently mentioned, it would have been leaked by now.”
Interesting timeline yesterday. At 4:03pm, Washington Post published an account of known contacts between Trump and Epstein, all of which ended in 2004. Conclusion: ‘No credible allegation has emerged to connect Trump to any of Epstein’s crimes. If the full file is ever released,…
— Byron York (@ByronYork) July 18, 2025
York pointed out, “At 6:45pm, Wall Street Journal published much-hyped super-duper bombshell report of elaborate birthday card Trump was said to have given Epstein in January 2003. Got a lot of attention but did not in any way challenge the Post’s conclusion.”
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