JULY 2025 – Yesterday’s latest revelation about Epstein-Trump – words nicely bound in a 2003 birthday book for the late sex trafficker – should be a slam-dunk Rosebud winner for the Wall Street Journal. But for now we’ll withhold judgement – let’s wait and see the impact. Suffice to repeat what many reader comments are saying: In this age of naked press intimidation, it’s courageous for The Wall Street Journal to publish anything that will set off the mendacious bully.
(This WSJ piece, now the subject of a Trump lawsuit, went from Noteworthy to Rosebud Winner on July 30.)
https://www.wsj.com/politics/trump-jeffrey-epstein-birthday-letter-we-have-certain-things-in-common-f918d796
The report reveals what Trump wrote in a birthday book to Jeffery Epstein in 2003 – all of it fairly damning, and suggesting, to many, that Trump was himself involved in the depraved sexual activity that Epstein orchestrated all those years – at least before his first arrest in 2006. After insisting for weeks such reports were “fake” Trump is now telling his attorney general to release portions of the grand jury testimony, though it’s not clear that such material can even be released by any court.
What’s notable here is that Trump may talk tough about suing news media outlets, but it’s unlikely he could successfully litigate against any newsroom and the carefully prepared printed words they produce. (He sued the NYT when it published some of his tax-return information; a judge dismissed the case in 2023.). On the other hand, Trump has shaken down broadcasters ABC and CBS for what he calls unfair treatment, settling in both cases for millions in recent years. What’s the difference between targeting broadcasters instead print newsrooms? For one thing, facts on paper are harder to dispute. For another, Trump has a greater need to bully broadcasters – and broadcasters need him as well. Broadcasters need physical access to conduct interviews, to a greater degree than print newsrooms do. And finally, Trump by all accounts doesn’t read all that much, but watches the networks constantly. When it comes to broadcasters, even to some degree Fox, Trump is beating his wife.
Still, Trump threatens again in yesterday’s WSJ piece:
He told the Journal he was preparing to file a lawsuit if it published an article. “I’m gonna sue The Wall Street Journal just like I sued everyone else,” he said.