Trump calls signature 'fake'— but his personal letters tell a different story

After the release of a lewd birthday message apparently signed and sent by Donald Trump to Jeffrey Epstein in 2003, the White House called the document a fake. Taylor Budowich, the deputy chief of staff for communications, posted on social media several recent photos of the president's signature to make the point.

Trump's wavy signature, once described as resembling a seismograph, has evolved over the years. But one distinct difference between the signatures on Budowich's posts and the Epstein birthday card is that the birthday card has only a signed first name for Trump, something he has typically reserved for personal notes.

Several letters that Trump wrote to New York City officials from 1987 through 2001 show him signing only his first name, and those signatures closely match the first-name only version of Trump's signature on the Epstein note. One obvious similarity is that they all include a long tail following the final "d" of his first name. He has not typically included such a tail when signing with both his first and last names.

The New York Times obtained copies of the documents several years ago from the official New York City archives of Mayors Rudy Giuliani and Ed Koch. The letters were retrieved during research for Times articles and for research for a book written by Times reporters Russ Buettner and Susanne Craig.