Last Thursday, July 17, The Wall Street Journal published a collection of letter gifted to Jeffrey Epstein for his 50th birthday in 2003, and one of them had Donald Trump's signature alongside a drawing of a naked woman. It included the line "Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret."
Trump's administration quickly said that the letter was fake, to cut ties with the infamous New York financier Jeffrey Epstein, found guilty of sex trafficking with minors, who died in prison in 2019, reportedly as suicide, and who many believe was part of a bigger sex scandal involving many powerful people that the government is trying to cover-up, even when many of his voters still want the "Epstein client list" to be made public.
As a result of the WSJ article, the US president sued the two Wall Street Journal reporters that brought the story for libel and slander, as well as Rupert Murdoch, owner of the News Corp holding. And on Monday, he took it a step farther and vetoed the WSJ from his upcoming presidential trip to Scotland.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said it was "due to the Wall Street Journal's fake and defamatory conduct". A few reporters are included in the "press pool" to cover the official travels with the president. Usually, reporters from diverse outlets participate in this pool, but as CNN reports, Trump has now vetoed two outlets: the WSJ as well as Associated Press, because the international news outlets still referred to the "Gulf of Mexico", despite Trump ordered to call it the "Gulf of America".
