Epstein

Diya Ravi

July 18, 2025

President Donald Trump is once again making headlines—this time for suing the Wall Street Journal, its parent company, and two reporters for publishing a story that he says is completely false. The article was about a birthday gift given to Jeffrey Epstein back in 2003, which supposedly included a note signed by Trump and a drawing of a naked woman. Trump says the whole thing is fake, and he’s demanding a massive $20 billion in damages.

In a big 18-page lawsuit filed in Miami, Trump’s lawyers claimed the Journal ignored basic rules of journalism and published a story without real evidence. The article didn’t show the letter or the drawing it discussed. Trump’s legal team says that’s because they don’t exist.

As soon as the story was published, Trump responded on his social media platform, Truth Social. He warned that they'd be sued if the Journal printed the letter. He even said that Rupert Murdoch, who owns the Journal’s parent company, had promised to stop the story, but “did not have the power to do so.”

The Wall Street Journal says they stand by their reporting and will fight the lawsuit.

Trump’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, who was a convicted sex offender before he died in jail in 2019, has been under a microscope lately. During his 2024 campaign, Trump said he might release more files about Epstein. Many of his fans have demanded answers and even questioned whether Epstein died by suicide, as official investigations said.

Recently, Trump’s Justice Department said there’s no evidence of an Epstein “client list,” which upset a lot of Trump supporters. Some of them even started to doubt him. This lawsuit might be Trump’s way of trying to get them back on his side.

It’s super rare for a sitting president to sue the media. Legal experts told CNN that they don’t know of any other time this has happened. Usually, presidents just speak out or hold press conferences to defend themselves instead of going to court.

But this isn’t Trump’s first media fight. In 2024, he sued ABC News because George Stephanopoulos said a jury found Trump had “raped” E. Jean Carroll. The jury said Trump sexually abused her but didn’t use the word “rape.” ABC’s parent company ended up settling and paying $16 million for Trump’s future presidential library.

He also recently dropped a lawsuit against CBS and got the same $16 million deal. Other companies like Meta (Facebook) and X (formerly Twitter) have settled with him, too.

Law experts think Trump is using these lawsuits to scare the media into being more careful when reporting on him. They say this could be bad for the First Amendment, which protects freedom of the press.

Trump doesn’t seem worried, though. Right after filing the lawsuit, he posted that he can’t wait to see Rupert Murdoch and others “answer questions under oath.” Looks like this media battle is just getting started.