Fake Image Purports to Show Trump Birthday Drawing for Jeffrey Epstein
What happened: Liberal social media users are citing what appears to be a fabricated image that claims to show a letter and doodled picture President Donald Trump purportedly drew for the late financier Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday in 2003, before Epstein was arrested as a sex offender.
Context: On July 17, 2025, The Wall Street Journal (NewsGuard Trust Score: 100/100) reported that it had “reviewed” a bawdy letter written by Trump to Epstein that it reported contained several typewritten lines of text framed by a hand-drawn outline of a naked woman, signed as “Donald.” The letter, said to be included in a bound album of birthday greetings, concluded, “Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret,” the Journal reported. The newspaper did not include a photo of the supposed letter.
According to the 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 … 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."
Responding to the report, Trump told the Journal: “This is not me. This is a fake thing. It’s a fake Wall Street Journal story.” On July 18, Trump filed a libel suit against The Wall Street Journal, its parent companies Dow Jones and News Corp, and two reporters, alleging that the birthday greeting was “fake” and that the article caused Trump “overwhelming financial and reputational harm.”
A closer look: Two days after The Wall Street Journal published the article, a supposed photo of the purported letter spread among liberal accounts on Bluesky and X.
Anti-Trump Bluesky user @sundaedivine posted the image and stated, “Nothing says ‘innocent friendship’ like a nudie doodle and a cryptic message signed by a future president.” The post garnered 1,300 likes and 570 reposts in two days.
Canadian and anti-Trump X user Dean Blundell shared the image with the caption, “The WSJ isn’t F****** around…” The post received 31,000 views and 1,400 likes in one day.
Actually: The Wall Street Journal did not release an image of the alleged letter, nor had any other news organization done so as of July 21.
The image circulating on social media contains inconsistencies compared to the letter described by The Wall Street Journal.
According to the Journal, the text of the letter was inside the drawing. The image being shared on social media places most of the text above the drawing.
The fake image indicates the letter appeared under the Trump Organization’s letterhead — a detail that the newspaper would likely have included if true.
The Wall Street Journal did not respond to an email from NewsGuard requesting comment on the matter, including whether the image circulating on social media matches the purported letter described by the outlet.
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