WSJ’s Bawdy Trump-Epstein Exposé Is Record-Smashing Hit, Despite Lawsuit
The Wall Street Journal’s exclusive report about a lewd birthday letter allegedly sent from President Donald Trump to Jeffrey Epstein in 2003 may be the subject of a lawsuit, but its already one of the paper’s most-read articles of all time.
The July 17 piece, headlined “Jeffrey Epstein’s Friends Sent Him Bawdy Letters for a 50th Birthday Album. One Was From Donald Trump,” has racked up 4.4 million page views and 3.3 million unique readers, according to internal data seen by Breaker.
It’s now among the WSJ’s best-performing pieces in its modern history.
The story from reporters Khadeeja Safdar and Joe Palazzolo described a birthday letter allegedly penned by Trump for Epstein that included a hand-drawn outline of a naked woman and signed “Donald” with the name placed to resemble pubic hair.
“A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret,” the note concluded.
Trump has called the letter “fake” and is now suing the Journal, parent company News Corp, owner Rupert Murdoch, and the reporters for defamation, seeking $10 billion.
The backlash has complicated Trump’s efforts to contain fallout from his Justice Department’s memo that Epstein maintained no client list — a document that sparked revolt among MAGA diehards and drew fresh scrutiny from Congress.
Sources say Trump personally phoned the Journal’s editor-in-chief Emma Tucker in a bid to kill the piece. She didn’t budge and that, according to Breaker’s Lachlan Cartwright, has “won her a new fan base from some staff” who previously questioned her leadership.
