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When The Wall Street Journal published details of a tawdry drawing featuring the outline of a nude woman that Donald Trump gave to his pal Jeffrey Epstein for his 50th birthday, the president reacted by suing the newspaper for $10 billion.

According to the paper, the drawing also contained some highly disturbing text describing a “secret” the two men share. Epstein, of course, was later convicted of soliciting prostitution from a minor and died in prison before he could go on trial for running a sex trafficking operation. Trump, on the other hand, was found liable for sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll.

Among the details that The Wall Street Journal published was also that Trump used his trademark signature in a way that makes it look as though it is the pubic hair of the woman in the drawing.

But, according to the president (and his lawsuit), it was all made up.

“Defendants concocted this story to malign President Trump’s character and integrity and deceptively portray him in a false light,” the lawsuit states.

Specifically, it alleges that the reporters who wrote the story “falsely claim that the salacious language of the letter is contained within a hand-drawn naked woman, which was created with a heavy marker,” and that the reporters “falsely represent as fact that President Trump drew the naked woman’s breasts and signed his name ‘Donald’ below her waist, ‘mimicking pubic hair.’”

If you are wondering what that would look like, here is a hint.

https://twitter.com/OversightDems/status/1965125560016994708

That’s right, both the Journal and congressional Democrats on Monday released the image, which the estate of Epstein had made available to Congress.

In other words, the story is completely accurate, Trump lied, and the lawsuit was frivolous.

The drawing is as much “fake” or a “hoax” as the fact that Russia helped Trump become president in 2016 or that his administration is trying to keep the complete Epstein files from seeing the light of day.

Undoubtedly, the creepy text Trump composed, and which is included as an imagined conversation between the two friends in the outline of the woman, is newsworthy.

Here is part of it:

              Donald: We have certain things in common.
              Jeffrey: Yes, we do, come to think of it.
              Donald: Enigmas never age, have you noticed that?
              Jeffrey: As a matter of fact, it was clear to me the last time I saw you.

We won’t speculate as to whether Trump is hinting at their shared fondness for young women, which he acknowledged in an interview a couple of years before this drawing was created.

But somebody might want to ask the president what that “secret” was he referenced.

As disturbing as this text is in light of what we know about both men, what is even more important is that this story illustrates how Trump calls everything a “hoax” that he doesn’t like, and how he uses frivolous lawsuits to bully everybody from news organizations to universities.

It is a lesson we should all remember the next time it happens. 

In his Navigating the Insanity columns, Klaus Marre provides the kind of hard-hitting, thought-provoking, and often humorous analysis you won’t find anywhere else.