Trump's signature, a symbol of presidential power, is under new scrutiny
thanks to the Epstein case
[September 11, 2025]
By LAURIE KELLMAN
The signature of an American president is one of the planet's most
powerful symbols. It can set your tax bill, your immigration status and
who does or does not get aid from the world's largest economy.
Now, though, Donald Trump’s distinctive signature is being scrutinized
for a decidedly unpresidential reason.
Two documents in Jeffrey Epstein 's 50th-birthday album purportedly
include Trump's signature — one on a risque line drawing of a female
body and one on a picture of Epstein holding up a novelty check bearing
Trump’s name. A House committee released the 2003 book Monday, with some
members insisting the multi-peaked black signatures are authentically
Trump's, one of the best-known autographs in the world. The White House
says the president did not sign the letter or the check to Epstein, who
was later exposed as a sex offender and died by suicide in prison in
2019.
“It’s not my signature,” Trump told reporters outside a restaurant in
Washington on Tuesday night. “And it’s not the way I speak.” Also
Tuesday, the president declared the Epstein matter “a dead issue” in a
phone call with NBC News.
The “birthday book” signatures matter in part because they are perceived
as a measure of how close Trump was to Epstein before the president says
he ended the friendship two decades ago.
And they are part of a bipartisan push in Congress for the release of
the so-called Epstein files after years of speculation and conspiracy
theories stoked by Trump and many of his allies. The Justice Department
in August began turning over records from the Epstein sex trafficking
investigation to the House Oversight Committee.
Signatures have a history of conferring authority. But now?
By the standards of handwriting scholars, determining whether it’s truly
Trump's signature is difficult. By the standards of the U.S. political
system, it’s impossible. Despite the obvious resemblance to Trump’s
other signatures, partisan loyalty is driving opinion.
Tamara Plakins Thornton, professor emerita of history at the University
at Buffalo and author of “Handwriting in America: A Cultural History,”
said handwritten signatures have conferred authority and authenticity
“by consent” since the printing press raised their popularity in the
19th century.
“We have a fondness for signatures as marks of the unique self,”
Thornton said. “But of course it’s kind of baloney if you think about
it. It’s been a long time since (a signature) really could give that
rock-solid proof.”
“Authenticity is a very difficult thing to prove,” said Tyler Feldman,
owner of Inscriptagraphs, a memorabilia firm in Las Vegas. The
multibillion-dollar memorabilia industry, he said, revolves around
establishing an object’s authenticity via science and analysis
contracted to specialists. In the age of AI and deepfakes, “there are so
many fraud signatures out there,” he added, “whether he signed it or
not, it’s too hard to say.”
Nonetheless, signatures have great value — and a long history in
American folklore.
The signing pens themselves are status symbols of presidential access,
shown off in lobbying and congressional offices around Washington as
signs of clout. It is customary, for example, for presidents to sign
legislation into law using multiple pens they then give out, often on
camera, to stakeholders in turn. Then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi did the
same when she signed articles of impeachment against Trump in 2020 in
what amounted to a power flex as the leader of a separate and equal
branch of government.
John Hancock, one of the nation's founders, famously signed his name to
the Declaration of Independence in a large and flamboyant style — the
better, legend has it, for the king of England to read without his
spectacles. Now, one's “John Hancock” is a nickname for one's signature.
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Then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump autographs a
supporter's chest following his speech at a campaign rally at the
Prince William County Fair Ground, Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2015, in
Manassas, Va. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File)
If not proof, signatures point to stubborn political pain for
Trump
Even Trump can see from experience that he can't just command the
sizable swaths of his own base demanding a full accounting to let it
go, especially after his allies stoked the call to release the
Epstein files. He's tried repeatedly to deflect attention to other
matters and shame “weaklings” who persist in asking about Epstein.
Trump has called the scandal “a Democrat hoax that never ends” and
vowed to sue The Wall Street Journal, which first revealed the
letter.
Even the “hoax” characterization has changed in the face of
questions of logic: Who would have forged his signature in 2003 and
why? On Tuesday, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt answered
that it was all a Democratic and media narrative “to drag on this
bad story about him.” She said the White House would support
analyses of Trump’s purported signature on the Epstein scrapbook.
Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who is leading a
bipartisan push for a House vote to force the Justice Department to
release its Epstein files, played down the letter’s relevance.
“I think the document’s a distraction," Massie said. “I do think
that it does bear on the credibility of the people who are trying to
keep these documents from being released. It’s sort of indicative of
the things that might come out if we were to release all of the
files. In other words: embarrassing, but not indictable.”
Trump understands the value of his autograph
Trump was a celebrity before he was a politician, and his signature
is an extension of his brand. He has long been fond of sending notes
to people, always with his thick scrawl at the bottom. In December
2015, Trump was widely photographed signing the chest of a female
supporter at a rally in Manassas, Virginia, rock star-style.
Smiling, she then blew him a kiss, according to photos of the
exchange.
He understands the value of authenticity: As recently as June, Trump
repeated his long-standing allegations that President Joe Biden's
White House relied on an autopen to sign presidential pardons,
executive orders and other key documents, and said that cast doubt
on their validity. Pressed by reporters, Trump acknowledged he had
no such evidence, and Biden said any such suggestion was false.
As president, Trump keeps Sharpie markers handy. When he went to the
U.S. Open, on Sunday, he signed hats and tossed them to supporters
in the crowd.
Trump also enjoys the theatricality of signing documents, a way to
demonstrate the power of the presidency. He frequently summons the
press into the Oval Office while he completes executive orders. An
aide lays the document on the desk in front of him, Trump scrawls
his signature and then holds it up for the cameras.
“Seriously, is that a good signature?” he asked during one such
session on Aug. 25. “Who can write like that? Nobody.”
___
Kellman reported from London. Associated Press writers Chris
Megerian and Matt Brown contributed to this report from Washington.
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