President Donald Trump has grabbed the headlights yet again – this time for a rather unusual reason. For a change, this is neither related to his immigration policies, nor to the much-talked about Jeffrey Epstein case.
On February 14, American journalist and advice columnist E. Jean Carroll shared on X that she had received a fundraising email from Never Surrender Inc., a political action committee (PAC) associated with the president.
The subject line read, “Is everything OK?”, and the sender appeared as “Secret Admirer Donald J. Trump.”
According to Tyla, the email featured a Valentine’s Day theme, including a message that read, “Roses are red, violets are blue. Do you still love Trump, as I love you?”
It also included an image of Trump mailing a Valentine’s card and asked recipients to support the Republican Party and its agenda. “Before you read my letter – do you still love me and our great movement?” it said.
Carroll posted a screenshot of the message, writing: “Yes. This is a real email. No. I did not sign up on this mailing list. Yes. We are living in a crazy world.”
The email appears to be part of a broader automated fundraising campaign sent ahead of Valentine’s Day. However, it remains unclear why the journalist received the email, as according to her, she did not subscribe to the mailing list sent as part of Never Surrender Inc.
The organization has sent several personalized notes asking for support for the Republican party. In early February, one email read, “I placed a special LOVE LETTER in the mailbox.” When opened, the emails direct recipients to a donation page.
Carroll and Trump share a rather unpleasant history from 2019. The journalist sued the president for defamation during his first administration after he denied her allegation that he had sexually abused her in the 1990s.
Consequently, in 2023, a jury found the president liable for sexual abuse. In a separate proceeding, Carroll won an $83.3 million defamation lawsuit in damages over Trump’s repeated defamatory statements about her.
According to the BBC, Carroll claimed that Trump tried to attack her at a Bergdorf Goodman store in Manhattan in late 1995 or early 1996, after the pair met while shopping.
Trump allegedly asked for her advice about buying lingerie for another woman, joking that she should try it on. He allegedly pinned her against the wall and assaulted her inside the dressing room.
Carroll’s “Ask E. Jean” advice column has appeared in Elle magazine since 1993.
E. Jean Carroll says she also thought of the women she had advised over the years to speak up. “I felt like a fraud,” she said, because she had taken no such action herself. Then, in May 2018, she submitted a memoir proposal, with the Trump allegation included. pic.twitter.com/CQyxGSKVxM
— The New York Times (@nytimes) June 27, 2019
Meanwhile, the president initially said that he did not know who she was despite evidence. “She is — it’s just a terrible thing that people can make statements like that,” he said. Trump has repeatedly dismissed her claims, previously accusing her of trying to boost book sales and “peddling fake news.”
After the president said she was “not my type,” Carroll responded in an interview with CNN, “I love that I’m not his type.”
During the 2016 campaign, another accuser, Jessica Leeds, alleged that Trump groped her on an airplane in the 1980s. At a rally, Trump said she “would not be my first choice”.
