President Trump on Wednesday refiled his defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal over the paper’s bombshell claim that Trump once sent disgraced sex predator Jeffrey Epstein a bizarre birthday message complete with a sexually suggestive doodle and the line: “Happy Birthday, may every day be another wonderful secret.”
Trump says the whole thing is garbage.
The new lawsuit, filed in federal court in Miami, comes just weeks after a judge tossed out Trump’s first attempt, ruling the complaint didn’t clear the notoriously high “actual malice” hurdle required in defamation cases involving public figures.
But Team Trump clearly isn’t waving the white flag. The revamped complaint accuses the Journal and its corporate brass of knowingly pushing false claims that caused “overwhelming” financial and reputational harm to the president — language that reads less like a routine legal filing and more like a political flamethrower aimed straight at legacy media.
Among those named in the suit: media titan Rupert Murdoch, Dow Jones, News Corp CEO Robert Thomson, and Journal reporters Khadeeja Safdar and Joseph Palazzolo.
The controversy centers on a document the Journal reported on last summer — an alleged birthday letter supposedly bearing Trump’s signature that appeared in a birthday album assembled for Epstein’s 50th birthday back in 2003.
According to the report, the album was organized by convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime associate who is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence after her role in grooming and trafficking underage girls was exposed in spectacular fashion.
Trump has repeatedly denied writing the note, denied the signature is authentic, and blasted the story as fiction dressed up as journalism.
And now he’s turning that fury into another courtroom war.
The case is shaping up as yet another front in Trump’s scorched-earth battle against establishment media outlets he accuses of laundering political hit jobs under the banner of “reporting.” Since returning to the White House, Trump has also tangled legally with The New York Times and the BBC — part of a broader campaign to push back against outlets he says have spent years trying to destroy him through anonymous sourcing, selective leaks and splashy allegations that later collapse under scrutiny.
For the corporate press, the Epstein angle is irresistible catnip. For Trump and his allies, it’s another example of media elites recycling sensational accusations in hopes the headline alone sticks — even if the facts don’t.
