Headlines this week have focused on the House Oversight Committee releasing Jeffrey Epstein’s infamous “birthday book,” a leather-bound album compiled by Ghislaine Maxwell for the convicted sex trafficker’s 50th birthday in 2003. The September 8 release showcased a crude drawing and sexually explicit message allegedly from Donald Trump to Epstein, alongside a disturbing photograph of Epstein holding a $22,500 novelty check signed “DJTRUMP” with a handwritten note joking about “selling” a “fully depreciated” woman to the former president.
On the same day the Epstein documents emerged, a federal appeals court upheld the $83.3 million judgment against Trump for defaming E. Jean Carroll, the woman a jury found he had sexually abused. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals described Trump’s conduct as having a “degree of reprehensibility” that was “remarkably high, perhaps unprecedented.”
After the Wall Street Journal first reported on the birthday book drawing and sexually explicit message ending with “may every day be another wonderful secret,” in July, Trump filed a $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the newspaper, Rupert Murdoch, and the reporters involved. The suit claims the letter was “nonexistent” and seeks massive damages for what Trump called “false, malicious, and defamatory” statements.
Trump has attempted to dismiss the Epstein birthday book revelations entirely, telling NBC News on September 9: “I don’t comment on something that’s a dead issue. I gave all comments to the staff. It’s a dead issue.” Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has maintained categorical denials, insisting “it’s very clear President Trump did not draw this picture, and he did not sign it” while also claiming the signature on the $22,500 check “is not Donald Trump’s signature.”
While the signature shows notable stylistic similarities to Trump’s writing from the time (late 90s, early 2000s), Republican allies have rallied to his defense by framing the entire controversy as partisan warfare.
Regardless of Trump’s presence in the Epstein documents, the current President of the United States appears in numerous verified photographs with Jeffrey Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell, and the addition of the birthday book further highlights these longstanding ties. These materials echo a history of allegations, including the court’s definitive ruling against Trump in the E. Jean Carroll sexual abuse case, which illuminates a persistent pattern in his public life. The birthday book is part of a broader context; it aligns with the accounts of 27 women who have accused Trump of sexual misconduct and serves as further documentary support of the predatory behaviors legally recognized in Carroll’s case.
His documented history includes degrading public comments about women’s appearances, workplace discrimination against female employees, and using his ownership of beauty pageants to gain access to women and teenage contestants in various states of undress.
On a tour bus in the NBC Studios parking lot, Trump was captured on a hot microphone describing his philosophy of sexual assault.
Speaking to Access Hollywood host Billy Bush while wearing wireless microphones, Trump detailed his failed attempt to seduce Nancy O’Dell, Bush’s married co-host at the time:
“I moved on her actually. You know she was down on Palm Beach. I moved on her and I failed. I’ll admit it. I did try and f**k her. She was married…
“I moved on her very heavily. In fact, I took her out furniture shopping. She wanted to get some furniture. I said, ‘I’ll show you where they have some nice furniture.’ I took her out furniture– I moved on her like a b***h, but I couldn’t get there. And she was married. Then all of a sudden I see her, she’s now got the big phony tits and everything. She’s totally changed her look.”
But it was Trump’s subsequent commentary that provided insight into how Trump views women.
“I start kissing her. You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. I just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.
“Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.”
The recording captured not just crude language, but Trump’s fundamental belief system: that celebrity status granted him license to sexually assault women with impunity because they would “let you do it” when you’re famous. This wasn’t hypothetical bragging, it was Trump describing his actual approach to women, complete with the assumption that wealth and fame created a form of implied consent.
Trump shrugged off this kind of talk as “locker room banter,” but former Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Stacey Williams echoed Trump’s exact methodology when she described her 1993 encounter at Trump Tower.
Williams, who was 24 at the time, recalled meeting Trump while he was with Epstein.
“The second he was in front of me, he pulled me into him, and his hands were just on me and didn’t come off,” Williams said. “And then the hands started moving, and they were on the, you know, on the side of my breasts, on my hips, back down to my butt, back up, sort of then, you know – they were just on me the whole time. And I froze. I couldn’t understand what was going on.”
Williams also received a postcard from Trump shortly after the alleged incident, featuring a photo of Mar-a-Lago with a handwritten note reading “Your home away from home. Love, Donald.”
These allegations go far beyond Carroll and Williams.
Jessica Leeds (late 1970s/early 1980s)
Allegation: Groped on an airplane flight. “He was like an octopus. His hands were everywhere,” grabbing her breasts and trying to put his hand up her skirt. Three years later, Trump called Leeds a “c**t.”
Kristin Anderson (early 1990s)
Allegation: Reached under her skirt and groped her genitals at a Manhattan nightclub. “It wasn’t a sexual come-on. I don’t know why he did it. It was like just to prove that he could do it, and nothing would happen.”
Jill Harth (1992-1993)
Allegation: Multiple incidents including groping at dinner and attempted assault at Mar-a-Lago. “He was relentless,” she told the New York Times. “I didn’t know how to handle it. I would go away from him and say I have to go to the restroom. It was the escape route.” Harth sued Trump for sexual assault.
Beatrice Keul (1993)
Allegation: In 1993, Swiss pageant contestant Beatrice Keul said she was invited to Donald Trump’s suite at New York’s Plaza Hotel after the American Dream Pageant, where Trump allegedly “jumped” on her, forcefully kissing her on the lips and neck, groping her, and attempting to lift her dress.
“He kissed me on the lips and on the neck. He tried to lift my dress,” she added. “He was grabbing and touching my body everywhere he could.”
Lisa Boyne (1996)
Allegation: In 2016, entrepreneur Lisa Boyne told HuffPost that at a 1996 dinner with Donald Trump and modeling agent John Casablancas, women were forced to walk across a table to leave. Boyne said Trump looked up their skirts, made lewd comments about their bodies, and asked her which woman he should sleep with.
Mariah Billado (1997 – Miss Teen Vermont)
Allegation: Trump entered Miss Teen USA dressing room while contestants as young as 15 were changing. “I remember putting on my dress really quick because I was like, ‘Oh my god, there’s a man in here.’”
Billado said that Trump said “Don’t worry, ladies, I’ve seen it all before.”
Victoria Hughes (1990s)
Allegation: In 2016, former Miss Teen USA contestant Victoria Hughes said that Donald Trump made an inappropriate and unexpected visit to the girls’ dressing room during the 1997 pageant. Hughes was the oldest contestant at the time, at 19 years old, while the youngest was 15.
E. Jean Carroll (mid-1990s)
Allegation: Rape in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room. A jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation, awarding her $5 million, plus $83.3 million for subsequent defamation.
“The moment the dressing-room door is closed, he lunges at me, pushes me against the wall, hitting my head quite badly, and puts his mouth against my lips,” Carroll wrote in an excerpt of her 2019 book,”What Do We Need Men For?.”
She went on, “The next moment, still wearing correct business attire, shirt, tie, suit jacket, overcoat, he opens the overcoat, unzips his pants, and, forcing his fingers around my private area, thrusts his penis halfway — or completely, I’m not certain — inside me. It turns into a colossal struggle.”
Temple Taggart McDowell (1997)
Allegation: Unwanted kissing when she was Miss Utah. Trump kissed her “directly on the lips” twice, once in front of chaperones who told her not to go into a room alone with Trump.
Cathy Heller (1997)
Allegation: Grabbed and kissed her at Mar-a-Lago during Mother’s Day brunch.
“He took my hand, and grabbed me, and went for the lips,” Heller told The Guardian.
Heller said she leaned backwards to avoid him and almost lost her balance. “And he said, ‘Oh, come on.’ He was strong. And he grabbed me and went for my mouth and went for my lips.” She turned her head, she claims, and Trump planted a kiss on the side of her mouth. “He kept me there for a little too long,” Heller said. “And then he just walked away.”
“I was angry and shaken,” she continued. “He was pissed. He couldn’t believe a woman would pass up the opportunity.”
Amy Dorris (1997)
Allegation: Groped at 1997 U.S. Open tennis tournament, forcing his tongue down her throat.
“He just shoved his tongue down my throat and I was pushing him off,” Dorris told The Guardian. “And then that’s when his grip became tighter and his hands were very gropey and all over my butt, my breasts, my back, everything … I was in his grip, and I couldn’t get out of it.”
Karena Virginia (1998)
Allegation: Groped her breast outside the U.S. Open tennis tournament while making unseemly comments about her appearance.
“Hey, look at this one,” she recalled overhearing Trump telling a group of men. “We haven’t seen her before. Look at those legs.”
He made those comments “as though I was an object rather than a person,” she said, reading from a document. “He then walked up to me and reached his right arm and grabbed my right arm. Then his hand touched the right inside of my breast. I was in shock. I flinched. ‘Don’t you know who I am? Don’t you know who I am?’ That’s what he said to me.”
Karen Johnson (early 2000s)
Allegation: At a New Year’s Eve party in the early 2000s, Trump allegedly pulled her behind a tapestry and forcibly kissed and groped her without consent.
“I’m a tall girl and I had six-inch heels on, and I still remember looking up at him. And he’s strong, and he just kissed me,” Johnson said. “I was so scared because of who he was … I don’t even know where it came from. I didn’t have a say in the matter.”
“When he says that thing, ‘Grab them in the pussy,’ that hits me hard because when he grabbed me and pulled me into the tapestry, that’s where he grabbed me,” she said.
Trump allegedly continued to call her after the incident, repeatedly inviting her to fly to New York to see him.
Tasha Dixon (2001 – Miss Arizona)
Allegation: Trump walked into Miss USA dressing room while contestants were “naked or half naked.”
“He just came strolling right in,” Dixon said. “There was no second to put a robe on or any sort of clothing or anything. Some girls were topless, other girls were naked.”
“To have the owner come waltzing in when we’re naked or half naked in a very physically vulnerable position, and then to have the pressure of the people that work for him telling us to go fawn all over him, go walk up to him, talk to him.”
Bridget Sullivan (2000 – Miss New Hampshire)
Allegation: Trump walked into contestants’ dressing room unannounced and hugged her inappropriately.
“The time that he walked through the dressing rooms was really shocking. We were all naked,” Sullivan said. “He’d hug you just a little low on your back.”
Mindy McGillivray (2003)
Allegation: Grabbed her buttocks at Mar-a-Lago during a Ray Charles concert.
A photographer witnessed her immediate complaint: “Donald just grabbed my ass!”
Natasha Stoynoff (2005)
Allegation: Trump sexually assaulted her in 2005 at Mar-a-Lago.
“We walked into that room alone, and Trump shut the door behind us. I turned around, and within seconds he was pushing me against the wall and forcing his tongue down my throat.”
Trump told her they would have a sexual affair.
Jennifer Murphy (2005)
Allegation: Trump kissed her unexpectedly following a job interview in Trump Tower in 2005.
Juliet Huddy (2005/2006)
Allegation: Kissed her on the lips without consent after Apprentice audition.
“He went to say goodbye and he, rather than kiss me on the cheek, he leaned in on the lips.”
Rachel Crooks (2006)
“He started kissing me on one cheek, then the other cheek. He was talking to me in between kisses, asking where I was from, or if I wanted to be a model. He wouldn’t let go of my hand, and then he went right in and started kissing me on the lips.”
Samantha Holvey (2006 – Miss North Carolina)
Allegation: Trump “lined up the girls” to look them over.
“He would step in front of each girl and look you over from head to toe like we were just meat, we were just sexual objects, that we were not people.”
Ninni Laaksonen (2006 – Miss Finland)
Allegation: Groped before appearing on Late Show with David Letterman.
“Trump stood right next to me and suddenly he squeezed my butt,” Laaksonen said. “He really grabbed my butt. I don’t think anybody saw it, but I flinched and thought, ‘What is happening?'”
Jessica Drake (2006)
Allegation: Adult film actress alleged Trump grabbed and kissed her without consent at a golf tournament, then offered her $10,000 to come to his hotel room.
Summer Zervos (2007)
Allegation: Donald Trump kissed and groped her without consent during business meetings in 2007.
“He then grabbed my shoulder and began kissing me again very aggressively and placed his hand on my breast,” she said. “I pulled back and walked to another part of the room. He then walked up, grabbed my hand, and pulled me into the bedroom. I walked out.” Zervos added that Trump thrust himself on her before she left the room.
Cassandra Searles (2013 – Miss Washington)
Allegation: Posted on Facebook that Trump “continually grabbed my ass and invited me to his hotel room.”
Searles wrote on Facebook: “Miss USA Class of 2013: Do y’all remember that one time we had to do our on stage introductions, but this one guy treated us like cattle and made us do it again because we didn’t look him in the eyes? Do you also remember when he then proceeded to have us lined up so he could get a closer look at his property? Oh I forgot to mention that guy will be in the running to become the next President of the United States. I love the idea of having a misogynist as the President.”
Alva Johnson (2019)
Allegation: Alva Johnson’s 2019 lawsuit alleged that Donald Trump forcibly kissed her during his 2016 presidential campaign and that the campaign discriminated against her based on race and gender.
Jane Doe (13 years old, 1994)
The most disturbing and controversial allegation against Donald Trump came from a woman using the pseudonym “Jane Doe” (also “Katie Johnson”) who accused Trump and Jeffrey Epstein of rape when she was 13 years old in 1994. The case, filed just months before the 2016 presidential election, contained graphic allegations of child sexual abuse at Epstein’s Manhattan mansion but was ultimately withdrawn after the accuser received death threats.
According to the federal court filings, “Jane Doe” alleged she was an aspiring model from California who came to New York City in 1994 seeking modeling opportunities. The lawsuit claimed she was recruited at the Port Authority bus terminal by a woman working for Epstein who promised modeling connections and money in exchange for attending parties.
The complaint detailed four alleged sexual encounters with Trump at Epstein’s East 71st Street mansion during summer 1994, with the incidents escalating in severity. In her sworn declaration, Jane Doe described the final alleged encounter:
“Defendant Trump tied Plaintiff to a bed, exposed himself to Plaintiff, and then proceeded to forcibly rape Plaintiff. During the course of this savage sexual attack, Plaintiff loudly pleaded with Defendant Trump to stop but with no effect. Defendant Trump responded to Plaintiff’s pleas by violently striking Plaintiff in the face with his open hand and screaming that he would do whatever he wanted.” Afterward, according to the complaint, “Defendant Trump threatened Plaintiff that, were she ever to reveal any of the details of the sexual and physical abuse of her by Defendant Trump, Plaintiff and her family would be physically harmed if not killed.” The complaint also includes an affidavit from an unnamed individual who said she witnessed the assault.
Talking about young girls was not unusual for Trump.
Aside from saying his daughter, Ivanka was “voluptuous” and allowing Stern to call her “a piece of a**” on the Howard Stern Show in 2004, Trump also talked about how 18-year old Lindsay Lohan was “hot.”
“There’s something there right?” said Trump. “But you have to like freckles. I’ve seen a, you know, close up of her chest and a lot of freckles. Are you into freckles?”
“She’s probably deeply troubled and therefore great in bed. How come the deeply troubled women, you know, deeply, deeply troubled, they’re always the best in bed?”
He went on to say, “Well I have a friend Howard who’s actually like a great Playboy, I mean, I don’t say this about men, this guy does very well. He runs silent, runs deep as they say, like a submarine. He will only look for a crazy women. He says, ‘Donald, Donald, please, please, I only want the crazy women.’“
“They’re desperate,” Stern said.
“But for some reason, what I said is true,” Trump added. “It’s just unbelievable. You don’t want to be with them for long term, but for the short term there’s nothing like it.”
Throughout his decades-long pattern of alleged sexual misconduct, Donald Trump has maintained one unwavering response: categorical denial of every single allegation.
Trump’s response to sexual misconduct allegations follows a predictable template that has remained remarkably consistent since the 1970s. When confronted with accusations, he typically employs a three-pronged strategy: outright denial, personal attacks on the accuser, and claims of political conspiracy.
Trump’s survival despite facing more sexual misconduct allegations than any politician in American history stands in contrast to how such accusations have typically ended political careers.
Al Franken faced eight accusations of unwanted kissing and groping and resigned from the U.S. Senate within weeks. Fellow Democrats demanded his immediate resignation, viewing his continued presence as incompatible with the party’s values.
John Edwards never recovered politically after his 2008 affair scandal, despite the misconduct being consensual adultery rather than assault. His political career ended permanently, and he was criminally prosecuted for campaign finance violations related to covering up the affair.
Roy Moore lost what should have been a safe Republican Senate seat in Alabama after facing allegations of sexual misconduct with teenagers when he was in his thirties.
Eric Schneiderman, New York’s Democratic Attorney General, resigned within hours after four women accused him of physical abuse during romantic relationships. Anthony Weiner was driven from Congress twice over sexting scandals that. John Conyers, the longest-serving House member, resigned immediately after sexual harassment allegations from former staff.
Even presidents have not been immune. Bill Clinton faced impeachment proceedings partly based on his relationship with Monica Lewinsky, and credible rape allegations from Juanita Broaddrick.
Yet, at least four cabinet nominees (Matt Gaetz, Pete Hegseth, Robert F. Kennedy and Linda McMahon) in the Trump administration have had sexual misconduct allegations.
A vote on the disclosure of the Epstein documents is expected to pass by the end of September.
In yesterday’s special election for Virginia’s 11th Congressional District, Democrat James Walkinshaw secured victory over Republican nominee Stewart Whitson. The bipartisan discharge petition led by Republican Rep. Thomas Massie and Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna currently has 216 of the 218 signatures needed to force a House vote on releasing Epstein files. Walkinshaw committed to signing immediately upon being sworn in, providing signature #217. Democrat Adelita Grijalva, heavily favored in Arizona’s September 23 special election, has also pledged to sign, which would provide the crucial 218th signature.
