A Rare Glimpse into the “Birthday Book”
On Monday, House Democrats released what is a birthday message Donald Trump sent to Jeffrey Epstein in 2003 for the financier’s 50th birthday. The document, described as “the Birthday Book,” was subpoenaed from Epstein’s estate and shared publicly on social media. The note is shockingly explicit in its design: a typed dialogue between “Donald” and “Jeffrey” is laid out inside the outline of a naked woman. Trump’s first name is scrawled in a place meant to evoke pubic hair. The letter closes with: “A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret” [NBC News].
Trump’s Defense: “Fake, Fake, Fake” As Usual
The White House moved quickly to discredit the note. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt declared it “fake news to perpetuate the Democrat Epstein hoax.” Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich insisted it was not Trump’s signature, posting examples of his full autographs online as comparison. Trump himself has long denied not only the note’s authorship but its existence, even suing The Wall Street Journal in July for reporting on its contents, calling it a malicious fabrication worth “$10 billion in defamation damages”.
To his critics, the timing of the lawsuit only sharpened suspicions. House Oversight Democrats framed their release as proof of concealment, blasting on X: “Trump talks about a ‘wonderful secret’ the two of them shared. What is he hiding? Release the files!”
The Epstein Connection Reignited
The resurfaced letter reopens a familiar wound: Trump’s onetime friendship with Epstein. The two men moved in identical Manhattan and Palm Beach circles in the 1990s and early 2000s, hosting parties together and appearing in archived videos. Trump has since claimed he broke ties with Epstein after a “falling out” at Mar-a-Lago.
The release also reignites public debate over the still-shrouded “Epstein files”—court documents and government records relating to his abuse network. The Justice Department this summer declared Epstein’s 2019 jail death a suicide and said no further charges would follow, a conclusion met with fury even among Trump’s base, who had fueled conspiracy theories about Epstein’s connections to political elites.
Political Calculus and Dangerous Optics
The note’s alleged contents are damaging not just for their vulgarity but for their tone of camaraderie. A president already embattled on multiple legal fronts now faces the image of frivolity—and even coded complicity—with Epstein, a convicted sex offender whose name remains shorthand for elite impunity.
Democrats cite it as evidence of concealment; Trump frames it as defamation. Both sides know it will not move only legal needles but political ones. For voters, the scandal revives enduring questions: what did Trump know, what did he do, and why has the most powerful government in the world been unable to fully unearth Epstein’s secrets?
What’s clear is that the “Birthday Book” has mutated from an artifact of depraved social circles into a political grenade, one Democrats have pulled the pin on just thirteen months before the next election cycle.