Fox News remains uninterested in informing its viewers about new details regarding the close relationship President Donald Trump once shared with Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted child sex offender who allegedly trafficked dozens of girls and received a sweetheart plea deal from a prosecutor later appointed to Trump’s first-term Cabinet. The public release of a remarkably creepy birthday note to Epstein bearing Trump’s signature on Monday has garnered only 4 minutes of coverage on Fox News through Tuesday night. 

Even that figure understates the degree to which Fox is burying the report. The network has shown an image of the letter, which includes a sexually suggestive drawing, only a single time, and its text, which references “things in common” between Trump and Epstein and a shared “wonderful secret,” has been quoted on-air only once, and then attributed to congressional Democrats.

The letter was reportedly included in a birthday book that convicted sex offender and Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell compiled for Epstein’s 50th birthday in 2003. The Wall Street Journal first reported the letter’s existence in July, and the House Oversight Committee’s Democrats released it on Monday after the committee received the book from Epstein’s estate. 

The Journal’s analysis of the letter details commonalities between its language, illustration, and signature, and those of Trump during that era. Trump and his administration have claimed that the signature is not his and that the letter is part of a Democratic “hoax.” Trump sued the Journal and its owner, Fox founder Rupert Murdoch, over the initial July report.

Why, in 2003, someone would have forged a letter from Trump to his then-close friend Epstein for his birthday is a question that remains unaddressed. But it doesn’t take much to rally MAGA influencers to Trump’s defense, and this half-baked theory has proved to be more than enough for them to declare the note “fake.” A movement which spent years concocting vast conspiracy theories about Democratic child sex trafficking rings is willing to take the pathologically dishonest president at his word.

Fox’s biggest stars, on the other hand, seem wholly uninterested in whether the president of the United States once authored the following birthday letter to his buddy, the notorious child sex trafficker. 

The right-wing propaganda network is largely handling the story by pretending it does not exist, consistent with its past acceptance of Trump's orders not to cover the Epstein saga.

Fox’s coverage of the letter overwhelmingly comes from the network’s “news” shows, which have parroted Trump’s denials but avoided revealing details related to it:

• On the Monday edition of Special Report, Chad Pergram reported: “The birthday book purports to include a letter from President Trump. Committee Democrats say that President Trump writes about, quote, ‘a wonderful secret’ between he and Epstein. The White House says the president did not draw the picture nor sign it.” Fox did not show the picture and signature or provide any other details about its contents.
• Tuesday’s Special Report featured a longer segment from Kevin Corke, who briefly flashed an image of the letter on screen but did not read from it; aired clips of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s claim that Trump “did not write this letter” and Rep. Derrick Van Orden's (R-WI) claim that the letter is a “fallacy”; and cited “competing claims from media organizations and others that have examined the authenticity of the signature.”
• Tuesday’s Fox News @ Night aired a brief panel discussion during which anchor Trace Gallagher did not air an image of the letter or detail its text but instead played a clip of Leavitt’s denial.

Fox host Laura Ingraham is the only Fox “opinion” host to address the story. On Tuesday, after airing live coverage of Trump taking questions from reporters outside a D.C. restaurant, she reiterated his remarks, saying, “People tried to get him to answer questions about Epstein. He’s like, ‘You’re wasting your time. This is stupid. Not my signature.’” 

Will Cain, Jesse Watters, Greg Gutfeld, and Sean Hannity did not mention the letter on their Monday or Tuesday broadcasts. Nor did the co-hosts of the panel show The Five or Trump’s beloved morning show, Fox & Friends.

It’s not like their programs are so overwhelmed with news that they can’t figure out how to squeeze in the Epstein story. On Tuesday night, Watters ran a lengthy interview with the actor Charlie Sheen.

And The Five and Hannity both aired segments about a random person’s interaction with former CNN host Don Lemon.

Fox’s stars know that Trump doesn’t want them talking about Epstein, and they are obeying the president’s demands.

Methodology

Media Matters searched transcripts in the SnapStream video database for all original programming on Fox News Channel for any of the terms “Epstein,” “signature,” “letter,” or “birthday” from September 8, 2025, when the House Oversight Committee confirmed that it had received a letter allegedly signed by President Donald Trump to Jeffrey Epstein for his 50th birthday, through 11 a.m. ET September 10, 2025. 

We timed segments, which we defined as instances when the Epstein birthday letter allegedly containing Trump’s signature was the stated topic of discussion or when we found significant discussion of the letter. We defined significant discussion as instances when two or more speakers in a multitopic segment discussed the letter with one another.

We also timed mentions, when a single speaker in a segment on another topic mentioned the birthday letter without another speaker engaging with the comment, and teasers, which we defined as instances when the anchor or host promoted a segment about the letter scheduled to air later in the broadcast.

We rounded all times to the nearest minute.