Trump's Creepy Love Letter To Epstein & Floating a Transgender Gun Ban

0:00You're listening to Newsweek Radio. Irreverent news talk and opinion without agenda. From the 72nd floor of One World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan. This is Newsweek Radio with your host, Jesse Edwards.

0:40but that's kind of difficult because this thing is a multi-layered pile of weirdness, but let's just take a moment to indulge in a healthy amount of our so-called Trump derangement syndrome as we comfortably steep ourselves into the realm of speculative journalism. First off, let's talk about where this came from. Lawyers for Epstein's estate turned over a leather-bound birthday book to Congress. An entire book of greetings put together for Epstein's 50th birthday. And who does that with birthday cards and a leather-bound book? Not your average neighbor. Not your regular golfing buddies. A leather-bound archive of notes from some of the most powerful people on the planet.

1:18Inside that book, a page signed by Donald J. Trump. Now, on the surface, it kind of looks like a playful exchange, but it's not written on a card with balloons or golf clubs or yachts. No, the dialogue is printed inside the outline of a naked female torso. I'm sure you've seen it somewhere. But that's the cipher. That's the code. That's the frame that the author chose to set his dialogue inside of. Really try not to read too much into this, but it's really hard not to. And it starts with a voiceover? That's really weird. Who starts a birthday card like a radio script? I mean, the voiceover says there must be more to life than having everything.

1:54This is what gives billionaires panic attacks when they realize that they can't buy their way out of boredom just like everybody else. Then Trump answers, yes, there is, but I won't tell you what it is. In other words, something here is highly unspeakable and it has to stay hidden. Epstein replies, nor will I, since I know what it is. Which sounds like a confirmation to me. He knows something. They both know something that the reader doesn't. Then Trump drops the line, we have certain things in common, Jeffrey. No, not golf, not business, not private jets. Certain things in common. Certain secret things in common.

2:29And then comes the most chilling line from Trump, that enigmas never age. Have you noticed that? Never age, really? Read between the lines there. Is that code for young people? I mean, I doubt that Epstein and he are talking about the fountain of youth or plastic surgery, but again, who talks like this in the first place? Creeping me out. Epstein replies, as a matter of fact, it was clear to me the last time I saw you. So under this fictitious scenario that Trump allegedly dreamed up, Epstein is confirming that enigmas or mysterious people like he and Trump never get old? Sounds like a really bad case of Peter Pan syndrome to me.

3:04I wonder if these two ever hung out with Michael Jackson. How well did you know Michael, Donald? Well, Larry, as you know, I knew him very well. He was a great guy. He was actually a very, very smart businessman. He was somebody that was very special. He lived in Trump Tower for an extended period of time in New York, and right next to me, actually, and so I got to know him very well. He would go down to Mar-a-Lago and Palm Beach a lot. I've known Michael from many different standpoints, and Michael would spend a lot of time with my kids. I have beautiful kids, and at the time, like at Mar-a-Lago, and even in Trump Tower, the kids were very young.

3:39Michael would come, play with the kids. He just loved children. He was not a child molester, and I am certain of that. He loved children. He'd play with my son Eric and my son Donald, and he'd just play with them forever. He loved children. Wow, I was not preparing to go off on that little diversion, but an interesting little gem to dig up at a time like this, I would say. But let's get back to that Epstein birthday letter where Trump signs off with this benediction. A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy birthday. And may every day be another wonderful secret. Ugh, yuck, yuck, yuck. No, this is not a birthday card.

4:19This is like a ritual. Saying the word secret three times like some sort of coded mantra. So what do we really have here? It's not just Trump's signature in a leather-bound book of Epstein's. We have what appears to be a coded message, immortalized in print, inside the outline of a naked body designed to be both playful and deniable, with Trump's signature that resembles the torso's pubic hair, and a message that reads less like a greeting and more like an initiation. You know, assuming it's real in the first place. What kind of disgusting memento is this exactly? Because it makes me feel like I need to go take a shower after looking at it.

4:50And how could someone look at this and not think that something extremely sinister was going on? I do not understand. But I do believe that the majority of us believe that it's real. Yes, it could just as easily be a forgery. But considering what collectors like myself call provenance, I would feel entirely comfortable in purchasing items from the Epstein collection with full confidence in their authenticity, assuming I was in the market in the first place. Not that I'd ever consider owning Jeffrey Epstein memorabilia, but I'm guessing that the Smithsonian might be interested in adding this to their future Trump exhibits.

5:22This took a lot of creative thought to make. I can't help but be a little suspicious about it, but Trump's behavior on this topic demands suspicion. We're exactly right to be suspicious, not just because of what's on the page, but because of the effort that went into making it. I mean, most birthday cards are quick notes. This, by contrast, is part of a leather-bound collection typeset dialogue. No handwriting, not a casual inscription. Somebody sat down and formatted this like a script to be read out loud. That level of design tells you that it wasn't just a happy birthday buddy, it was curated.

5:52It looks more like Epstein's brand of performance art mixed with Compromat. He was known to stage things from bizarre photo ops in his Manhattan townhouse to videotaping guests in compromising situations. The book fits that mold. And Trump has trained everyone to be suspicious of him in this exact area. His public behavior of joking about Epstein at rallies to downplaying their relationship, than repeatedly saying that he was the one who banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago sets off just a few alarm bells because it looks just like a pattern of overcompensation. If the story were as simple as he cut ties with Epstein, then he wouldn't need to keep circling back, reframing and inflating that anecdote.

6:30Here's the next headline at Newsweek. Gun rights groups blast proposal to block trans people from firearms. The National Rifle Association insists the Second Amendment isn't up for debate as senior Justice Department officials have reportedly held internal deliberations about issuing regulations restricting transgender individuals from possessing guns in the wake of a shooting at a Catholic school in Minnesota. Well, the NRA is absolutely right about this, and if the Trump administration thinks that they can prove otherwise, they must be getting high on their own supply of whatever it is that they're smoking over there at the DOJ.

7:03Look, I'm not one for identity politics, but this is the Trump administration playing identity politics with a tragic situation. No, no, you do not get to discriminate access to inalienable rights based on gender, race, or religion. That's identity politics weaponized, something that the right accuses the left of constantly. And exactly what kind of monster would take away due process when it comes to the Second Amendment? Oh, that's right. Donald Trump is the one who sat next to Dianne Feinstein after a shooting during his first administration, arguing with his then-owned Vice President Mike Pence that we should bypass due process and take the guns first.

7:41If you don't believe me, take a listen, wise guy. Allow due process so that no one's rights are trampled, but the ability to go to court, obtain an order, and then collect not only the firearms, but any weapons in the possession of that individual. Take the firearms first and then go to court, because that's another system. Because a lot of times, by the time you go to court, it takes so long to go to court to get the due process procedures. I like taking the guns early, like in this crazy man's case that just took place in Florida. He had a lot of fires. They saw everything. To go to court would have taken a long time.

8:18So you could do exactly what you're saying, but take the guns first, go through due process second. Yeah, Trumpers never really know exactly how to process that video or audio when they see it and or hear it. It's a great one to whip out on your phone for relatives around the holidays, especially those conservative ones. But as a matter of fact, you know what? Just go ahead. Go ahead. The radical right-wingers in Trump's DOJ should absolutely go ahead with floating this idea that trans people shouldn't be allowed to purchase firearms. I mean, in return, the end result is just going to be that you've inadvertently created more liberal gun owners overnight than anyone over at the NRA has done in the last, I don't know, 30 years.

8:54According to a New York Post report, Attorney General Pam Bondi is reportedly leading the initiative to consider classifying transgender persons as mentally ill for the purposes of stripping gun rights. Well, I mean, if that is the case, then it's pretty safe to say that this is coming directly from Agent Orange himself. An idea this stupid would have to come directly from him, wouldn't it? I mean, doesn't this just sound like precisely the kind of moronic brain fart that a guy like Trump would actually lean into? I'm sorry. Trump is the kind of guy who leans into his own brain farts a lot. I'm sorry.

9:25Oh, look, I have a lot of fun here because it's important to knock these clowns off their pedestals when they start to believe their own bullshit. Which is what happens when most people get to Washington. The only difference with Trump is that he's always believed his own bullshit. How could he not with that gold-plated silver spoon in his Kentucky Fried Chicken Hole? The National Rifle Association is against this. Gun Owners of America is against it. The National Association for Guns Rights is against it. Every good American would be against it. And if you try it, you had better be ready to enforce it.

9:56What's that mean? fair warning, because it's going to create some interesting alliances against you in ways that will prove absolutely volatile and dangerous for everyone involved. But on second thought, really, go ahead. This just might be the one last thing that finally unites our country against you, Donald. I mean, between this and how you've handled the Epstein fallout, you're single-handedly doing more to dismantle your own base far more efficiently than the left ever could dream of doing. Even at the peak of the Obama years, for crying out loud, you, sir, are truly an astounding specimen of nature, willing to take a big old chunk out of your big orange nose just to spite the face of our nation.

10:33Because like it or not, even trans people are allowed the freedoms of the Second Amendment, and that shall not be infringed upon just because you don't understand somebody else's worldview, Donald. You absolute hypocritical scumbag con man of a human being. And until we can do it again, it's Newsweek Radio. I'm Jesse Edwards. Catch you next time. Bye. And we say bye-bye! Newsweek Radio is a member of the Trust Project. Michael would come, play with the kids. He just loved children.