Epstein Birthday Letter with Trump's Signature Revealed
Key topics
The Wall Street Journal reveals a letter with Trump's signature sent to Jeffrey Epstein on his birthday, sparking controversy and discussion about Trump's potential involvement with Epstein, with commenters questioning Trump's actions and honesty.
Snapshot generated from the HN discussion
Discussion Activity
Light discussionFirst comment
4m
Peak period
3
0-3h
Avg / period
1.7
Based on 12 loaded comments
Key moments
- 01Story posted
Sep 8, 2025 at 2:55 PM EDT
4 months ago
Step 01 - 02First comment
Sep 8, 2025 at 2:59 PM EDT
4m after posting
Step 02 - 03Peak activity
3 comments in 0-3h
Hottest window of the conversation
Step 03 - 04Latest activity
Sep 10, 2025 at 3:20 PM EDT
4 months ago
Step 04
Generating AI Summary...
Analyzing up to 500 comments to identify key contributors and discussion patterns
Want the full context?
Jump to the original sources
Read the primary article or dive into the live Hacker News thread when you're ready.
It's hard for me as a foreign admirer of the USA not to conclude that a small majority of Americans are fundamentally quite venal and nasty. To think that I used to believe that shit Reagan said about the US being a city on a hill! Crazy.
Your 2nd paragraph is hard for me, a US citizen, to see. Reagan was in fact a complete faker and a liar. US religious leaders are also fakers and liars.
The difference now is that prior politicians had at least some interest in actually governing the country. That limited just how viciously they could engage with their political opponents. There was never any golden age of collegiality, to be sure, but even people like Newt Gingrich wanted to at least try running the country in between political campaigns.
And yet there's no immediately apparent runner-up gigabastard. All of the politicians, even Trump's most dedicated sycophants, are still hampered by the notion of wanting to actually run the nation. It doesn't work without a 100% commitment to smashing your enemies. If you let the conversation drift to figuring out valid policies, people lose attention, and realize that you're an idiot.
None of the other tech-bros seem to have it, either. If Musk or Zuckerberg or Bezos run for office, they're going to discover that people don't actually like them. They're smart enough to think that they can actually talk about policy, and nobody really likes policy. They want simplistic, vacuous solutions. Musk has the requisite cruelty to distract people from that, but he's not enough of a buffoon to really entertain the far right.
For Obama people went crazy because he wore a tan suit.
But when Trump lies, grifts, cheats, or sexually assaults women (and children) people defends him.
This is truly how a cult operates.