Statue of Trump and Epstein Holding Hands Removed from DC’s National Mall
110Sept. 25, 2025
US Park Police early this morning assisted the National Park Service in removing a sculpture depicting President Donald Trump cavorting hand-in-hand with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein from the National Mall in Washington, DC, theWashington Postreports. The twelve-foot-high sculpture, titledBest Friends Foreverand made from wood, foam, and resin spray-painted bronze, bore a plaque reading, “We celebrate the long-lasting bond between President Donald J. Trump and his ‘closest friend,’ Jeffrey Epstein.”
The sculpture had been installed on Tuesday by an anonymous collective called the Secret Handshake. Citing its purpose as “to demonstrate freedom of speech and artistic expression using political imagery,” the group had filed for and obtained a permit from the National Park Service that would allow the statue to remain on the mall until 8 p.m. Sunday.
On Tuesday, following the sculpture’s appearance on the mall, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson issued a statement asserting that “Liberals are free to waste their money however they see fit — but it’s not news that Epstein knew Donald Trump, because Donald Trump kicked Epstein out of his club for being a creep.” Jackson accused “Democrats, the media, and the organization that’s wasting their money on this statue” of ignoring the plight of Epstein’s victims for years while “President Trump was calling for transparency, and is now delivering on it with thousands of pages of documents.”
The sculpture disappeared from the mall hours later. A spokesperson for the Department of the Interior toldNPR, which viewed video of officials carting the work away, that the statue had been removed “because it was not compliant with the permit issued.”
Trump’s friendship with Epstein has long been a subject of scrutiny, though the president has consistently sought to distance himself from the disgraced financier following a reported falling out over a 2004 real estate deal. His administration has been under tremendous pressure from both Democrats and Republicans in recent months to release the Epstein files, as Trump promised to do during his campaign. The Justice Department earlier this monthreleaseda trove of documents related to Epstein, but much of the information was already public.
“There’s a lot of uproar on the left and the right about releasing the Epstein files,” a member of the Secret Handshake toldArtnews.“We have nothing to do with that. The information about their bond that’s public says a lot.”