When Donald Trump pushed back against a report alleging he drew a “bawdy” sketch to celebrate convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday, the president insisted he doesn’t draw pictures.
“I never wrote a picture in my life,” he said in an awkwardly-phrased rebuttal to the Wall Street Journal last week, vehemently denying having anything to do with the birthday card. In a later Truth Social tirade he doubled down on the statement and bluntly declared: “I don’t draw pictures.”
Despite the president’s claims, multiple sketches by Trump have been made public over the years.
Analysts were quick to pounce on Trump’s denial, including Media Matters chief Angelo Carusone, who told MSNBC, “I can think of three [Trump sketches] off the top of my head that were auctioned.”
At least five sketches from the late 1990s and early 2000s have been sold at auction.
Trump’s take on the Empire State Building, scribbled in his signature black marker pen, from his days as a Manhattan real estate mogul when he was pursuing the prized property, went up for auction back in 1995.
The 12-by-nine-inch piece was etched from his Mar-a-Lago estate for a charity auction, according to Julien’s Auctions. The signed sketch sold in 2017 for $16,000, according to The New York Times.
There was another marker and pencil drawing from the early 2000s, in which Trump depicted dollar bills falling from a spiral-leafed tree, punctuated by a large gold signature. A placard on the back read that “The Donald” was known for his “outspokenness and media exposure,” along with his “distinct comb over.”
The “Money Tree Drawing” sold at the North Carolina-based auction house Lealand Little in December 2020 for $8,500, the website reads.
In October 2003, Trump drew the “Cityscape Skyline,” this time entirely in gold marker pen, originally done for a celebrity art auction to benefit the Capuchin Food Pantry.
Dated 2004, the Art of the Deal author depicted a scene reminiscent of the Riverside South development project in Manhattan. The drawing was sold in January for $15,000, according to Sotheby’s auction house.
Trump drew a more minimalist rendition of his New York City skyline piece in 2005, which sold at Nate D. Sanders auctions in 2017 for $29,000. The auction house stated that there was an additional variant of the drawing.
In 2006, Trump scrawled the George Washington Bridge in black marker.
That drawing, which was sold by Julien’s auctions for $4,480 in April 2019, was described as an “original ink illustration on paper” and “signed in black ink by Donald Trump lower center.”
In his 2010 book Trump Never Give Up, the president boasted, “Each year I donate an autographed doodle to the Doodle for Hunger auction at Tavern on the Green.”
“Art may not be my strong point,” he admitted.
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