The publisher scrubbed Epstein’s name from the original edition. O’Donnell reconnected those dots after Epstein’s 2019 arrest.

O’Donnell tells the full story in an article at Slate.

Now it’s 2025, and that old story’s got company: Epstein’s 50th birthday album.

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The Birthday Bombshell

In July, The Wall Street Journal reported Trump contributed to Epstein’s 2003 birthday book—curated by Ghislaine Maxwell herself. The alleged message included a drawing of a naked woman and this line: “Happy Birthday—and may every day be another wonderful secret.”

Trump’s name sat in the “Friends” section alongside Bill Clinton, Leon Black, and Vera Wang.

Trump’s response? Called it “fake,” denied it existed, and slapped the Journal and Rupert Murdoch with a $10 billion lawsuit.

Problem is, The New York Times and The Journal both confirmed the book exists. They’ve got contributor lists, photos, and Maxwell’s handwritten intro.

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Media Goes Full Bloodhound Mode

The press smelled blood:

• Newsweek and Forbes published detailed timelines of Trump-Epstein connections—flights on the jet, Mar-a-Lago parties, signed notes calling Epstein “the greatest”

• The New Republic and Yahoo News highlighted the gap between Trump’s denials and mounting evidence

• Politico confirmed Clinton’s entry too—both presidents listed as “friends”

Meanwhile, Epstein content exploded. Julie K. Brown’s Perversion of Justice sold out. Netflix’s Filthy Rich saw a 268% spike in views. Epstein podcasts dominated Apple’s charts.

Nothing sells like a scandal involving powerful people trying to hide something.

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The Political Meltdown

Trump’s team initially promised transparency. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Epstein’s “client list” was “sitting on my desk.”

Then came the 180: no list, no disclosures. Trump called it a “Democrat CON JOB” and accused critics of falling for a “Jeffrey Epstein HOAX.”

His own supporters weren’t buying it.

Congressional Democrats demanded Epstein’s files, including the birthday book. House Oversight subpoenaed Maxwell. DOJ officials confirmed Trump’s name in the documents—making the denials look even worse.

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Why This Actually Matters

This isn’t about a birthday card or casino gossip. It’s about credibility and accountability.

The Epstein investigation’s been locked down tighter than Fort Knox. Now high-profile names are surfacing in official documents, and pressure’s mounting from both parties to release everything.

We know Trump knew Epstein—that’s settled. The real questions: How deep did it go? And why are so many people working overtime to bury the evidence?

The birthday book won’t go away because it represents something bigger: the public’s right to know what their leaders were really up to with one of history’s most notorious criminals.

Sometimes the cover-up tells you everything you need to know about what’s being covered.

The subcommittee, led in the minority by Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, determined that the biggest area of DOGE waste comes from $14.8 billion spent under the “Deferred Resignation Program.” The program, launched by Trump a few days into his new term, was supposed to shrink the federal workforce.

What that means in reality, as The Washington Post reported on Thursday, is that over 154,000 federal employees are currently being paid not to work. Despite the billions being spent, the spokesperson for Trump’s Office of Personnel Management, told the Post that it has “delivered incredible relief to the American taxpayer.”

Key agencies have been affected by this drain of resources, including the departments of Defense (55,000 employees volunteered for “deferred resignation”), Agriculture (15,400), Veterans Affairs (9,400), Interior (7,400), and Justice (4,000).

Democrats’ report also reveals that hundreds of millions in tax dollars have been lost because the administration destroyed food aid and medical supplies, wasted time by mandating employees send out accomplishment emails to Trump officials, and froze loans meant to fund ongoing government projects.

“As my PSI investigation has shown, DOGE was clearly never about efficiency or saving the American taxpayer money. Instead it wasted at least $21.7 billion,” Blumenthal wrote on social media, following the report’s publication. “I urge Inspectors General to take my investigation’s findings & initiate a comprehensive review of DOGE’s careless actions.”

Trump tapped Musk to lead DOGE after Musk donated millions toward Trump’s victory in the 2024 presidential election. Musk also allowed racism and disinformation to thrive on X, formerly Twitter, after he bought it.

DOGE’s actions have been unpopular with the public and generated grassroots protests across the country. Many of those protests have occurred outside of showrooms for Tesla, the electric vehicle company Musk owns. Tesla sales have fallen following Musk’s actions with DOGE.

Since Musk left DOGE around the end of May, many of the flunkies he brought along with him to disrupt government agencies have departed, leaving behind dysfunctional messes that will continue to cost taxpayers for years to come.

SEE THIS: The King of Conspiracy Theories Whines that Democrats Don’t Talk Enough About How Awesome He Is

The onslaught of invective from Trump on this occasion began with a tired rehash of his hatred for Stephen Colbert. Trump complained that…

“Everybody is saying that I was solely responsible for the firing of Stephen Colbert from CBS, Late Night. That is not true! The reason he was fired was a pure lack of TALENT. […] Next up will be an even less talented Jimmy Kimmel, and then, a weak, and very insecure, Jimmy Fallon.”

 

Actually, it was Trump and his cronies who were giving him credit for the cancelation of Colbert’s show. And Trump is the last person who should be assessing the talent of others. For the record, Colbert’s show is number one in its time period. The cancelation, which isn’t effective until May of 2026, is  due only to the cowardly compliance of the network’s corporate masters.

Next up was Trump’s visceral animosity toward a strong woman on Fox News who dared to criticize the blubbering snowflake Trump. He whined that…

“I can’t stand Jessica Tarlov of THE FIVE. A real loser!!! DJT”

 

That’s it. Trump didn’t bother to give any reason for this outburst. It might have had something to do with Tarlov having spoken out Tuesday on matters related to the inflationary Trump Tax (tariffs), or to Trump’s historically abysmal approval polling, or to her advocacy for assault rifle regulations in the wake of a mass shooting in Manhattan.

Trump simply can’t tolerate any criticism. But it’s monumentally worse if it comes from a woman. Trump has gone after Tarlov before, calling her a “failed TV personality” who Fox News should not allow on the air. Even on a program (“The five”) where she is outnumbered four-to-one. For the record, Tarlov has a doctorate in political science and government from the London School of Economics. So it’s no wonder that Trump is afraid of her.

The majority of Trump’s posts expressed his tyrannical demand that Republicans in the Senate rush to confirm his judicial nominees. He singled out Sen. Chuck Grassley for failing to overcome Democratic opposition via use of the “blue slip” that allows members of both parties to invoke a virtual veto of a nominee. But Trump resorted to his standard viciousness, saying “Democrats like Schumer, Warner, Kaine, Booker, Schiff, and others, SLEAZEBAGS ALL.” He called the process “unconstitutional” and a “hoax” (of course), and lied that it would prevent him from ever getting a nominee confirmed…

“…in California, New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Virginia, and other places, where there is, coincidentally, the highest level of crime and corruption.”

For the record, the highest levels of crime and corruption are almost entirely in red states.

Among Trump’s postings were several that were just rabidly partisan memes. They contained messages that reflected the hatred that he has for fellow Americans. But worse, he was exhibiting his most fascistic aspirations by calling for the persecution of his political foes.

All of this is more evidence of the sociopathic sickness that courses through Trump’s veins. He is a bitter, hostile, vengeful, malignant narcissist, who should never be entrusted with power. And the sooner he is removed from office the better off the nation – and the world – will be.

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COMMENT:  The fact that Trump is attacking people who appear regularly on TV shows simply confirms that his time is spent — NOT in governing — in watching TV, channel surfing, to see who is criticizing him.

We learned in his first term that most of his daily schedule is “Executive Time” — which is nothing but time he spends in the White House residential area watching several TV sets at a time, with most of his attention on Fox.