Trump launches fresh attack on WSJ
The president blasted the story as 'typically untruthful' and saying 'nobody' had to explain to him that firing Powell 'would be bad for the market.' 'I know better than anybody what's good for the Market, and what's good for the U.S.A. If it weren't for me, the Market wouldn't be at Record Highs right now, it probably would have CRASHED! So, get your information CORRECT. People don't explain to me, I explain to them!,' he wrote Sunday on Truth Social.
Powell has been a repeated target of Trump's fury and the president has mulled firing the head of country's central bank. He wants the Fed to lower interest rates. Bessent has been silent on the reporting thus far but he told Bloomberg Television this past week that whoever serves as Fed Chair is 'President Trump's decision and it will move at his speed.' Trump's anger at Powell has been eclipsed by his anger at the Journal, after it published an article alleging Trump sent a lewd birthday card to Epstein for his 50th birthday.
The president denied sending the card. He sued the Journal and owner Rupert Murdoch for defamation, asking to be awarded damages 'not to be less than $10 billion.' A bombshell report in the Wall Street Journal on Thursday claimed Trump wrote a 'bawdy' 50th birthday card to Epstein, which concluded: 'Happy Birthday - and may every day be another wonderful secret '. The newspaper said it had reviewed a typewritten letter bearing Trump´s signature, framed by the seemingly hand-drawn outline of a naked woman, that Ghislaine Maxwell included in a 2003 birthday album.
Trump has denied writing the letter or drawing the picture, calling it 'false, malicious, and defamatory .' The Journal and its parent company Dow Jones stand by the story. The president has successfully sued other media outlets including ABC News and CBS News' 60 Minutes. He was awarded a $16 million settlement with Paramount this month. Last year, ABC News agreed to settle a defamation suit for $15 million, plus $1 million for Trump's legal fees.
The Journal reports the birthday message included an X-rated drawing of a naked woman, with Trump's famous signature squiggle written across her genitals to mimic pubic hair. According to the Journal, the naked woman appeared to have been hand-drawn with a marker, with a pair of arcs indicating the woman's chest and a squiggly signature reading 'Donald' appearing in her pubic region, mimicking hair. 'I never wrote a picture in my life. I don't draw pictures of women,' Trump told the WSJ. 'It's not my language. It's not my words.'
But it once again raises questions about the friendship between Trump and Epstein. The two men knew each other and were pictured together at social events. But Trump said they had a falling out in 2004 and he banned Epstein from his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Fla. Epstein, however, continues to haunt the Trump administration.
The president has tried to move on from the disgraced financier who died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges related to [sexual] trafficking minors. He called for a federal judge to release grand jury testimony related to the Epstein case as he tries to calm the fury from his MAGA supporters over a lack of new information released about the case. The MAGA faithful were counting on Trump to release a cache of new information on Epstein, who is subject to a rash of conspiracy theories, including unproven ones that he did not commit suicide while awaiting trial.
But Attorney General Pam Bondi crushed MAGA hopes when her department released the two-page memo saying it found no evidence that the convicted [sexual] offender blackmailed powerful people or kept a 'client list' and reiterated that he died by suicide in his prison cell in 2019. The memo also said that no more people would be arrested, charged or convicted in the Epstein child [sexual] trafficking case.
Trump supporters were deeply disappointed. FBI director Kash Patel and Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino - two men who have pushed Epstein conspiracy theories - have clashed privately with the attorney general on the matter. Some MAGA influencers have said Bondi should be fired after promising to release all files relating to Epstein and his high-profile male friends only to apparently renege on that promise.
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