President Donald Trump snapped at a Wall Street Journal reporter Saturday shortly after casting his early ballot in Florida, dragging Jeffrey Epstein into his rant against the journalist for unknown reasons.
As Trump walked alongside First Lady Melania Trump after casting his ballot in Palm Springs, Florida, a WSJ reporter asked him his thoughts on government corruption becoming voters’ top issue just ahead of the midterms. Trump suggested that a majority of government corruption was perpetrated by Democrats — ignoring the recent string ofcorruption allegations against his own administration.
As the WSJ reporter tried to cite the corruption allegations Trump, his family and his administration are facing, Trump abruptly interrupted by asking, “Who do you write for?”
After learning that the reporter was employed by the WSJ, Trump launched into a nearly minute-long tirade.
“You guys are worse than anybody, you know! Wall Street Journal has lost its way! There's massive corruption that you don't cover on the Democrat side, and you should!” Trump said.
“You ought to look at Minnesota, you ought to look at Maine, you ought to look at Los Angeles, because we are straight and we are solid! You ought to look at the real corruption — it's Democrat corruption, and that includes Jeffrey Epstein!”
Trump and Epstein werefriends for years and socialized in the same Palm Beach and New York circles, though Trump has said the friendship ended before Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to procuring a minor for prostitution.
That relationship has dogged Trump’s second term. In July 2025, the Journal reported that Trump’s name appeared on a bawdy 2003 birthday letter to Epstein, and Trumpsued the paper and Rupert Murdoch for at least $10 billion, calling the letter fake. Epstein’s estate later handed a copy to the House Oversight Committee, confirming the Journal’s reporting.
Trump has repeatedly dismissed the scandal as the “Epstein Hoax.”