The Don lied about doing drawings. Why? Here are his drawings.
John
Trump Says He Doesn’t ‘Draw Pictures.’ But Many of His Sketches Sold at Auction.
The president disputes reporting from The Wall Street Journal that he drew a picture for Jeffrey Epstein, but as a real estate mogul, he often sketched for charity.
- Share full article
By Tyler Pager
July 18, 2025
President Trump mounted a vigorous rebuttal on Thursday night to a report in The Wall Street Journal that he sent a birthday greeting with a sexually suggestive drawing to Jeffrey Epstein in 2003.
His alibi: “I don’t draw pictures,” he wrote on Truth Social.
But a review of the president’s past reveals that, for years, Mr. Trump was a high-profile doodler — or at least suggested he was. In the early 2000s, he regularly donated drawings to charities in New York. The drawings, many of which appear to be done with a thick, black-marker and prominently feature his signature are not dissimilar to how The Journal describes the birthday note he sent Mr. Epstein.
“It takes me a few minutes to draw something, in my case, it’s usually a building or a cityscape of skyscrapers, and then sign my name, but it raises thousands of dollars to help the hungry in New York through the Capuchin Food Pantries Ministry,” he wrote in his 2008 book, “Trump Never Give Up: How I Turned My Biggest Challenges Into Success.”
Advertisement
After Mr. Trump was elected president, some of the drawings he signed were auctioned off for thousands of dollars — even as he wrote in his book that “art may not be my strong point.”
The president has denied reports before — only for them to later be confirmed by audio or photos, such as his comments captured on “Access Hollywood” in which he bragged about grabbing women’s genitals, or photos of him flushing documents down the toilet.
The focus on Mr. Trump’s drawings comes as many of his most ardent supporters are calling for transparency around the investigation into Mr. Epstein, who was in a Manhattan jail cell awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges when he died by suicide in 2019. On Thursday night, Mr. Trump said he was authorizing Attorney General Pam Bondi to seek the public release of grand jury testimony from the prosecution of Mr. Epstein.
The president vehemently denied the reporting from The Journal, but the article raised new questions about his ties to Mr. Epstein. “As the president has said, the Wall Street Journal printed fake news and he doesn’t draw things like the outlet described,” Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, said in a statement.
Here is a look at some of the other sketches that Mr. Trump has drawn — or at least signed his name to — that have been auctioned over the years:
Mr. Trump often donated sketches of the Manhattan skyline
Over the years, Mr. Trump has donated his artwork to various charities, with many of his sketches focused on the same stretch of Manhattan skyline. These sketches would have been donated during the same time period that The Journal says Mr. Trump sent Mr. Epstein a note “of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker,” and featuring Mr. Trump’s signature.
Editors’ Picks
An Expert’s Best Advice for Cooking Over a CampfireHelp! A Pickpocket Used My A.T.M. Card, and Citi Won’t Cover It.Mortgage Lenders Can Use a Second Credit Score. Is That Good for Borrowers?
Advertisement
This drawing was later auctioned by Sotheby’s, but was originally donated by Mr. Trump for the Capuchin Food Pantries’ benefit in 2003. The scene is of the Riverside South development project in Manhattan, which Mr. Trump led.
This drawing dates to 2005. It was donated by Mr. Trump to the St. Francis Food Pantries and Shelters organization in New York.
Advertisement
This minimalist drawing of the same Manhattan skyline, sketched by Mr. Trump, also dates to 2005 and was for a charity event benefiting the fight against illiteracy.
Other sketches from Mr. Trump over the years
Mr. Trump is also associated with sketches of bridges and something one auction house described as a “money tree.”
This drawing dates to 2006 and is of the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee, N.J.
This drawing signed by Mr. Trump sold for $8,500 and was described by the auction house that sold it as a “money tree” drawing.
Tyler Pager is a White House correspondent for The Times, covering President Trump and his administration.
A version of this article appears in print on July 20, 2025, Section A, Page 20 of the New York edition with the headline: Trump’s Art of the Doodle: Past Works Belie Denials. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
Art Buddy Gone Bad!
Posted on July 19, 2020 by Royal Rosamond Press
I wrote the President and suggested I become his art buddy. Did he listen to my advice? No! Today, POTUS is a living work of art.
John Presco
Melania Needs an Art Buddy
Posted onNovember 29, 2018by Royal Rosamond Press
I rescind the offer to be President Trump’s ‘Art Buddy’. I transfer this offer to the First Lady. I suspect Donald uses the image of his foes in prison as his computer wallpaper.
Jon
The President’s Art Buddy?
Posted onJanuary 22, 2017by Royal Rosamond Press
President Barack Obama shows Prime Minister David Cameron of the United Kingdom a bust of Sir Winston Churchill in the private residence of the White House, July 20, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
To: The President of the United States of America
From: Jon Presco
President: Royal Rosamond Press
Dear Mr. President
Last night I began to compose a sarcastic letter to you in regards to the bust of Winston Churchill by the Bohemian Sculptor, Jacob Epstein. This morning I awoke with a change of heart when I finally heard the First Ladies plea to the world;
“For God’s sake, will someone be my husband’s best friend. I can’t be his best friend. I am a mother with a son to raise!”
I had an epiphany! You never had a best friend. I asked myself – Why? I deduced your inner mirror is on the blink. You may be incapable of introspection. This may be the result of being the richest kid on the block – and New York. However, it is coming out you do not like to read. How about contemplate a work of art? The world is now very curious as to where you gather your opinions. A best friend is often the source for most people. Best friends go off to a special place where they are beautiful and honest mirrors to one another. A best friend has permission to be critical with care, and tell you the truth, with love. To allow another human being to make up who you are, is the greatest experience one can own, especially when you are both artists. Did you know Winston Church is an artist. He loves the time he takes – to create! His empty canvases are telling! They are mirrors on the wall that bid us to look deeper, and behold the truth.
Here’s your letter I was composing in my mind before I went to bed….
Dear Mr. President;
Like millions of Americans, I hate your guts because you are so stupid! You know nothing about art, and, are unteachable. For this reason I highly suggest I be your Artist In Residence so I can protect the valuable works of art that belong to the American People, who with dignity and respect for the Office, let you borrow these works, for your edification and contemplation so that you will know what a Great Nation We are!
If you can put up an old army cot down in the basement next to the boiler, with kerosene lantern, I would know bliss. For when I heard you and your Generals yakking it up in the Oval Office, I would strap on my hunchback, go upstairs, and as your Brass mocks me, I will cover our works of art in plastic, so you pussy-grabbing freaks wont spill your booze all over our National Treasures – along with your precious Bodily Fluids.”
When I awoke, I was in a conciliatory mood, and a patriotic one. I owe it to my President, and my Fellow Americans to be serious – and try to make a difference in your life. I was going to bid you to contemplate this bust of Churchill, for it is a window into the soul of the British Endeavor, that was swayed by the rule of the most amazing Kings and Queens that ever walked the earth. Winston is closely related to Princess Diana Spencer, whose son will sit on the throne of England. King Henry Fitzempress Plantagenet is said to have built a labyrinth at Woodstock where he kept his paramour, Fair Rosamond, safe from his wife, Queen Eleanore. Henry was the most educated man in the world. He claimed he descends from the Kings of Troy, where Helen was taken after she was captured by Paris. Consider the beautiful women you have captured.
Henry’s grandfather had a zoo, and came close to ruling all of the western world, when his heir went down in the White Ship disaster. His daughter, Empress Matilda, made powerful moves on the Chessboard of the World, and thus the Plantagenet Dynasty was born. The War of the Roses stems from these Unions, the blood ties, that born real stories, including ‘The Game of Thrones’. Study Matilda and know that you are poised to replicate her vision. It is blatantly obvious you do not have a clue of how much power you own – that would instantly humble most leaders. Humility – is wasted on you! You are consuming all the humility of the world. You need to stop – and THINK!
I owned a vision Mr. President, of you tugging on a string that leads to my humble Bohemian abode down in your basement, and, I arise. A hot cup of coffee awaits us as we sit before the bust of Churchill and contemplate the meaning of – it all! I would be your Art Buddy, and not your teacher. Then, I beheld the sad, and dangerous truth.
On further investigation, I discovered you have rekindled the Iconoclastic Wars that my Rosemondt ancestors found themselves in the middle of. To my horror, I discovered you use a work of art to bludgeon President Obama with. You use Art to go to War. You use the word “enemy” on U.S. Citizens. If Churchill was alive, he would come across ‘The Pond’ and kick your ass: for Britain never had a better friend then the U.S.A when it came to defeating the Real Enemy. You sully the word! You grab the pussy of beautiful women, but, it is clear you don’t know what to do with it. You grab all the power one can own, and you don’t know what to do with it. I suspect Beauty itself is your mortal enemy. Mr. President, you are a very ugly man!
I must now declare you ‘The Enemy of Art’. You are in the company of Evil Men. Not since the defeat of Hitler, by the friends, Winston Churchill, and F.D.R, has there been one who dare take that Dictator’s place. You mock these great men. They hated the SS Gestapo, who stole some of the greatest art made in the west. You need to look in the mirror I hold up to you, and behold the Monster. You need to look at the artist who rendered that bust – and repent! Consider Henry and Beckett.
As it is now, you are irredeemable. You are damaged goods. You and Spicer made it very clear that you see ‘The American People’ as OBJECTS – your objects! Human beings are not objects. They can be called SUBJECTS if our land was a Kingdom. Most Presidents use the title ‘My Fellow Americans’. Since you took office, you have not addressed US with the respect WE ARE ALL DUE!
As things are now, there is no hope for you. To say this is to say there is no hope for US. You have no right to remove Hope from this Freedom Land, or, play devious games with works of art, as it they were your chess pieces. I will blog on our special relationship once a week. Whether you like it or not, I am your ‘Art Buddy’.
Because you are so stupid, and know very little, I suspect you already have a ‘Art Buddy’. Care to tell the American People who, he, or she – is? Hitler was an artist. When he tried to get into the Berlin Academy, a instructor noticed something disturbing in his cityscapes. They were devoid of people. Did Hitler find all the German People – unworthy?
Sincerely
Jon Presco
Rosamond Press 
Leave a comment