US President Donald Trump has publicly claimed he does not draw, while rejecting a Wall Street Journal report claiming he drew a sexually suggestive sketch in a 2003 birthday note addressed to Jeffrey Epstein. But sketches attributed to him have been auctioned for thousands of dollars over the years. “I don’t draw pictures,” he wrote on Truth Social this week, calling the story “a scam.”
Yet that assertion clashes with a record of at least five simple marker drawings, cityscapes, landmarks, even a “money tree,” signed “Donald” and auctioned for thousands between the late 1990s and mid-2000s, as per The Independent. In his 2008 memoir Trump Never Give Up, he wrote: “It takes me a few minutes to draw something… but it raises thousands of dollars to help the hungry in New York.”
Many were initially donated to charities in the early 2000s and later resold at significant prices, NYT reported.
The controversial birthday note
According to The Wall Street Journal, Trump donated a “bawdy” birthday message for Epstein’s 50th, created in a leather-bound book assembled by Ghislaine Maxwell in 2003. It featured a crude drawing of a naked woman framed by typewritten lines, ending with the signature “Donald.”
The note allegedly contained a mock dialogue: “We have certain things in common, Jeffrey… every day be another wonderful secret”. He added, “Enigmas never age, have you noticed that?”
So far, no visuals from the Maxwell-bound album have been publicly released; so coverage relies on The Journal’s description and court filings. Trump disputes both the imagery and the words, stating “These are not my words,” and has filed a defamation suit seeking at least $10 billion against The Journal, News Corp, and Rupert Murdoch.
White House slams report as ‘fake news’
White House spokesman Steven Cheung dismissed the Journal report, along with any implication that Trump’s known sketches matched the description in question. “As the president has said, the Wall Street Journal printed fake news and he doesn’t draw things like the outlet described,” Cheung said in a statement.
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Cheung also criticised The New York Times, calling its coverage “false and defamatory,” and claiming its comparison of Trump’s previous sketches to the card illustration proves it is “the enemy of the people.”
(With inputs from Reuters, The Independent, The Guardian, The New York Times)
