Tara Palmeri
Sep 8, 2025 The Tara Palmeri Show
What explosive secrets does a birthday card reveal about Donald Trump’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein?
In this gripping collaboration between The Tara Palmeri Show and The Don Lemon Show, veteran journalist Tara Palmeri, author of The Red Letter on Substack, dives into the controversy surrounding a disputed birthday card linked to Donald Trump. With relentless reporting, Tara unpacks the evidence, from signature disputes to denials by Trump’s team, and explores the Wall Street Journal’s bold stand against legal threats. This episode breaks down the card’s implications for victims, the political fallout, and the broader pursuit of justice in the Jeffrey Epstein saga.
Why are powerful figures scrambling to dismiss this birthday card, and what does it mean for the truth?
Transcript:
Welcome to the Tara Palmeri Show But joining us now is Tara Palmeri. She is a veteran journalist, the author of The Red Letter on Substack, and the host of the Tara Palmeri show, right here on YouTube.
She has reported extensively on this story of unraveling the Trump Birthday Card Scandal. Tara, thank you for being patient, and for letting me set that up. What do you think this means for the victims? You've been covering this story, but specifically, I think your reporting has been incredible about the victims. What does this mean for them?
I think it's a great day for them, because it shows that some of the evidence is coming to light. It puts more pressure on Republican holdouts, who refuse to vote for Massey's bill that would compel the DOJ, the Department of Justice, to release the Epstein files. It shows that there's more there. I also think, Don, it's a great day for the fourth estate. You know, President Trump sued the Wall Street Journal for $10 billion, saying that this was not a real letter, or not a real birthday card. And I think he used the word non-existent. Yes, that's the word. Non-existent. And you know, they stuck with their reporting, and they were willing to go to the mat and and report what they knew was true. And they did it without publishing the card, which they could have done all along. I'm sure it's unclear if their source would let them. I think that this card was most like, well, I don't want to say where I think it was. I don't like to reveal sources. But when they had the opportunity to do it, they revealed that they knew they were in the right all along. And I think it's a really good moment for journalism, and you and I are both independent journalists, but I do think we need institutional journalism as well.
100%. I agree with you. Because they can they can go up against these sort of attacks in a way that you and I are more vulnerable. They have more resources financially and and other resources financially, production wise, etc.
Yeah, exactly. And they have the backing of one of the richest men in the world, Rupert Murdoch, in a lot of ways, who is a media titan that Trump was obviously friends with at one time. But this is a real moment. And President Trump is used to lying, denying, calling everything a hoax, but sometimes, seeing is believing. And I think in this one, truly seeing is believing.
Now his team is saying that that is not his signature, although it looks to me like his signature.
Well, we're going to talk about that. Listen, I want to put this up. Karoline Leavitt, this is what she's saying. I'll get your reaction to that and then we'll show the signature. But Karoline Leavitt is saying the latest piece published by the Wall Street Journal proves this entire birthday card story was false.
As I said all along, it's very clear President Trump did not draw this picture, and he did not sign it. President Trump's legal team will continue to aggressively pursue litigation. Furthermore, the reporter, Joe Palazzolo, who wrote the hatchet job, reached out for comment at the exact same minute he published his story, giving us no time to respond. This is fake news to perpetrate the Democrat Epstein hoax.
I get it, you know, the whole thing of not contacting, or whatever. People all the time say, you know, I read stories about me and they say, "Oh, wait. We reached out to Don Lemon for a comment, and have not heard back." When no one has reached out to me. But that's besides the point here. I mean, is she delusional? Does she believe this stuff, or is it just her job? She's going to have to carry Donald Trump's water regardless of the facts. That's what comes with being a press secretary. And it's not particularly endemic to this administration to lie. We saw it in the last administration, and the administration before that, and the administration before that, and the administration before that. Their job is to speak for somebody else. Some people do it with a sort of gusto and enjoyment. But he is saying this in the third person, which I thought was very bizarre. Trump tweeted in the third person. Let me just pull it out because I thought it was so weird. You know what? I can't find it.
Is it from today? Yeah, he truth socialed something in the third person. And it's just so bizarre. I just thought it was just very weird. But yes, I mean, I'm not giving her any excuses. I think when you're a public servant, your job, first and foremost, is to inform the public of the truth, right? But am I surprised? No. This seems incredibly plausible to me. And if you know that the other people that also contributed cards to Epstein in this book include people like Nathan Mervald, top executive at Microsoft, who also included in his birthday card suggestive photos of animals mating, and with their penises erect, from their trip to Africa. Like a lot of the notes to Epstein suggested sexual deviance in some way. Sexual overtones.
Yeah. Less Wexner's note to him had something along those lines. I can pull it up right now. I mean, Bill Clinton wrote a message about their long-lasting friendship, and his childlike curiosity. I mean, that's a little creepy. "Childlike curiosity."
Wexner's letter had a line drawing of what appeared to be a woman's breasts along with a short message. Mort Zuckerman joked about looking for more information on Epstein, and he was the owner of the New York Daily News, a partial owner, which just shows you how many very prominent people were aware -- it was all kind of hanging out there in plain sight-- that this was a deviant, perverted man, who just so happened to be really rich. And I don't know if you saw the latest deep dive in the New York Times about his relationship with JP Morgan, but I found it to be incredibly illuminating.
No, that on my to-do list.
It's going to take you about a half hour, but it is worth every single minute, because it just shows you that there were so many moments from internal emails that this bank had the opportunity to cut off contact with Jeffrey Epstein, but continued to bank for him, including setting up the bank accounts of girls under the age of 18 for them to receive money. They knew that there were red flags of money laundering, and they were still continuing to do that. And it's just like every day, Don, there is a drip, drip, drip, of news coming out about Jeffrey Epstein. And you know, I don't believe it will stop until we get down to the bottom of it. At least I hope we don't. And you know, these kind of investigations take a lot of time. They cost a lot of money. But, you know, in this New York Times investigation, they're suggesting that Jamie Dimon, who is the head of the bank, was aware. He says he wasn't, but they said that he is such a micromanager, and that his deputy, Jes Staley, who asked for Snow White or Beauty and the Beast from Epstein, this is a man that was managing Epstein's money for women. It's sickening. It really is. This is a bank participating in sex trafficking essentially, or facilitating sex trafficking.
Excuse me. Do you think that'll have any implication? By the way, click on the Daily Beast podcast tonight. I'm going to be on. So I taped with them and that was supposed to be my time to read this piece, and I didn't get a chance because I was taping with them, and it went long. But it's fascinating. People are commenting on it in the comments. So I can't wait to read it. But do you think there will be any ramifications for these folks?
This is a huge investigation. I think JP Morgan's already had to pay out to the victims, but it's only a few hundred million dollars. I mean, to me, it just doesn't seem fair. Deutsch Bank was happy to take Epstein's money after JP Morgan cut off ties with him. Jes Staley moved on to Chase Bank, and apparently Epstein helped with that transition.
But in this piece, they say that Epstein connected JP Morgan with Sergey Brin, who is the founder of Google, Bill Gates, and Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel. Like I've done my own reporting, and I suggest you guys check out the Tara Palmeri show. He was a hyperfixer, not just for financial institutions, but I believe for my reporting, also with intelligence agencies. So he was able to use these connections that he bragged about. He name dropped all the time, but it kept him in these elite circles, and allowed him to make these huge deals.
He's a dropout from college who taught at a high school, and yet he has hundreds of millions of dollars being banked by JP Morgan. It's incredible. There's just still so much more we don't know. And I think Senator Ron Wyden is right: Follow the money; follow the transactions.
Yeah. Well, listen, I don't want to get too off the subject here, because that's important. And we we'll cover it, but listen, we played what Karoline Leavitt said, right? So, I just want to bring up one Vance, okay.
Oh, yeah.
So, you saw what JD Vance tweeted. This was in July:
Forgive my language, but this story is complete and utter bullshit. The Wall Street Journal should be ashamed for publishing it. Where's the letter? Would you be shocked to learn they never showed it to us before publishing it? Does anyone honestly believe this sounds like Donald Trump?"
Now let's show the signatures that Tara Palmeri brought up here. They're saying, "Oh, it's obvious he didn't sign it." But this is a comparison of signatures. He signed it as Donald. You can put that up, Andy. He signed it as Donald. And there it is. I mean, doesn't that look like the signature to you? They're scrambling.
They are scrambling. It is insane. I mean, remember when they said he doesn't use the word "enigma," and then he referred to Ben Carson as an enigma? Remember when they said he doesn't doodle, and then you found out that his doodles were sold at Sotheby's at auction? I mean, what are they going to say next? Like, don't even bother. It's like, I'm sorry, but don't believe your lying eyes. I just don't understand. I'm trying to understand how the MAGA base is going to respond to this, because Jack Posobiec said something like, "Oh, this will really take him down." It was almost like a scoffing, "Oh, this is nothing." It's incredible to me. I mean, I know politicians lie, but this just seems so blatant. How will Trump ever recover? I guess the right has completely forgotten about the story. They don't care anymore."
He's being sarcastic in that tweet, right?
Of course, "how will Trump ever recover?" This is the bulwark on conservative media's reaction. Tara, let me play this, and then get your response.
Yeah, look, this is the letter that has all the stuff about, you know, secrets, and ages not changing, things like that. So I think it's great to see it. The sort of instant reaction I'm seeing from right-wing media is they're really focusing a lot on the signature, saying, "Oh, you know, Charlie Kirk, for example, is saying that doesn't really look like Trump's signature. It looks Right-Wing Media’s Spin on the Card just like Trump's signature." I mean, if you pull up what Trump's signature looks like, it looks pretty much exactly like that. So I think this is going to keep the story going, the Epstein story that Trump has obviously tried to avoid. That, and Mike Johnson now backing off the idea that Trump was some sort of FBI informant against Epstein. I think the story is turning against the administration once again.
I mean, I am pulling up Donald Trump's signature right now, and gosh, the D is exactly the same. Listen, I'm not a handwriting expert, but this was in the birthday book. The Wall Street Journal reports that he submitted it. Donald Trump denies it. Yeah. Yeah.]
Tara, I mean, come on. Come on.
I know. It's pretty pathetic. And I'm like, are you guys all on payroll? Like, what --? I know that President Trump being in power is obviously a good thing for them, but at some point you got to be losing credibility with your own audience if you continue to defend somebody who is not being truthful.
This is the one thing that they can't contain, Tara. I mean, this is like the genie that they're trying to put back in the bottle, and just will not go back in the bottle. most of the stories they can contain, they can fake their way out of, and they can sort of shift reality. I don't think they're able to do that one on this one, although they're trying their darndest.
I know, it's crazy We are in a moment, but I'm hopeful, like Will said. that this will keep the story front and center.
You think it will?
I hope so. You know, Speaker Johnson saying Trump was an FBI informant, and then referencing Brad Edwards. I interviewed Brad Edwards in 2020, and he said that "Trump did help him with his case," and he interviewed him, but he wasn't an FBI informant.
Like, can we listen to Mike Johnson and then get your response? Here's Mike Johnson, because Mike Johnson said in an off-the cuff interview, I think it was with Manu on Friday, where he said, "Oh, you know, Donald Trump is well known as an informant for whatever," and that went viral. Then today, Manu caught up with him, and now he's saying, "There's nothing to see here; move along." Yeah, I guess everybody's --
What do you mean by that?
All right. What I was referring to in that long conversation was what the victim's attorney said. More than a decade ago, President Trump kicked Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago, and he was one of the only prominent people as everyone has reported, not President Trump, but everybody about him, that he was willing to help law enforcement go after this guy who was a disgusting child abuser, sex trafficker, all the allegations, that's what they heard. So the president was helpful in that. I don't know if I used the right terminology, but that's common knowledge, and everybody knows that. So this is much to do about nothing.
Did the president tell you this specifically?
I said I was recounting what others have said [not the President!]. The president and I have talked about the Epstein evils many times. He's as disgusted by it as everybody else. He has long had a history of acknowledging that, and has said repeatedly: He wants everything to come out; all credible information, everything for the American public to decide.
Was he ever asked to wear a wire or anything like that?
I have no idea. No, I'm not saying that. I have no information about that whatsoever. I was repeating what has been common knowledge for a long time. The president was helpful in trying to get Epstein, for the law enforcement to go after Epstein. That's always been my understanding. That's common knowledge. It's the public's understanding. I was not breaking news there. Okay? What I'm trying to emphasize is the president is as disgusted about this as everyone is. All people who have good intelligence --
-- except that he calls it a Democratic hoax.
Yeah. Okay. We can stop it there.
"Why does everyone care about this?" He's not disgusted about it. He wants it to go away.
This reeks of insincerity to me, Tara I know that you need to run, but it reeks. And he sounds like a total country club Republican like, "Oh, this is just much to do about nothing." But go on, please.
Yeah; no. I think this is -- no; yeah. No, he helped Brad Edwards because Brad sent him a subpoena. Brad was a lawyer for the survivors, he remains a lawyer for the survivors, and he helped Brad when he was trying to put together a crime victim's rights act case that would overturn the nonprosecution agreement, the sweetheart deal, because they argued that the crime victims rights were violated when they weren't informed of the details of this nonprosecution agreement. Like, if someone hurts you, and you are not told what their punishment is, you know what I mean, when they finally indict the person, they argue that you can claim, according to the crime victim's rights act, that the entire prosecution could be overturned, and that's what Brad was trying to argue. So he called up Trump's lawyer at the time and said, "You know, we want to send him a subpoena." And he said, "don't worry, Trump will get on the phone with you." So he got on the phone with Trump, and Trump gave him a bunch of leads about Epstein and his friends. That's what happened. That's not an FBI informant, right? And frankly, at the time, Trump was an enemy of Epstein because of this real estate deal, where he had to pay what he felt was more than he wanted to in a bidding war of a house, ironically called the House of Friends, a Palm Beach mansion on the water. They both wanted it. Trump got it, and eventually flipped it to a Russian oligarch for $96 million. I believe he paid $30-some million when he bought it.
$40 million.
Yeah. And by the way, in his conversation with Brad Edwards, he told him that when he asked Epstein about young girls at the pool (and from my conversations with Virginia, she said that the girls were often naked at the pool -- Virginia Giuffre, one of the most well-known survivors), he said it was a Big Brother, Big Sister program, and he didn't think anything weird about it. I mean, he thought it was weird, but he didn't do anything about it.
Like in some ways, when people don't do anything about it, they become enablers themselves in my opinion.
Well, Tara, I want to be respectful of your time. You have to run. Thank you very much. I know that you have your heart out. We'll see you soon. Great reporting. We love having you on, Tara. The Tara Palmeri Show on YouTube, and the Red Letter on Substack.
Thank you.
Thanks for watching the Tara Palmeri Show. I want to thank my producer, Eric Abanate; Adam Stewart, who handles my thumbnails, and Abby Baker on my social media. If you want to support my independent journalism and get my scoop straight to your inbox, please sign up for the Red Letter. You can do that by going to tarapalmeri.com. You can obviously share this with your friends. Subscribe, leave a written review.
I'm not backing down. I'm back from my vacation. I feel so much stronger. Thank you to all of you who have sent me notes. I just turned 38, and it's going to be "30 great!" And I really feel positive about what I am able to accomplish with this community, what we can all do. And I appreciate all the tips and everything you've sent to me.
And of course, I'll be in DC on Wednesday. So check out my social media. I'll be on MSNBC. I'll be on Nicole Wallace's show. I'll be doing a live on Substack with Terry Moran. You can go to Substack. I'm on there at Tara Palmeri. And I'll be live from the Capitol. So check out all of my social media. Check out my podcasts, everything. I will be there. Twitter, X, whatever they're calling it now. I'll be back again soon.
