Statue of Trump and Epstein holding hands removed from National Mall
A statue of President Trump and Jeffrey Epstein holding hands has been removed from the National Mall a day after it was placed there. The statue had a permit from the National Park Service to remain at its location in front of the Capitol until 8 p.m. Sunday.
A U.S. Park Police spokesperson told Washingtonian Magazine that the force assisted the National Park Service in removing the statue Wednesday at 5:30 a.m., “due to it not being in compliance with the permit.”
The U.S. Park Police did not immediately reply to The Washington Post’s requests for additional comment on the statue removal. The National Park Service and the White House also did not respond to emails seeking comment on its removal.
The 12-foot-tall statue, spray-painted bronze and titled “Best Friends Forever,” depicted Trump and Epstein holding hands and each with one foot raised behind them. A plaque at the base of the installation read, “We celebrate the long-lasting bond between President Donald J. Trump and his ‘closest friend,’ Jeffrey Epstein.”
According to its permit application, the purpose for the artwork was “to demonstrate freedom of speech and artistic expression using political imagery.”
Trump and Epstein, a wealthy financier, were once friends, but a real estate deal in 2004 appears to have upended the relationship between the two. When Epstein was arrested in 2019 on suspicion of sex-trafficking underage girls, Trump, then in his first term as president, said: “I had a falling-out with him a long time ago. I don’t think I’ve spoken to him for 15 years. I wasn’t a fan.”
On Wednesday morning, a dry patch on the ground was the only evidence of where the statue once stood. Tourists and locals who had come to see the installation said they were surprised and disappointed to see it removed.
“It was depressing. I came here specifically to see the statue,” said Nigel Collie, 68, who was visiting from Portland, Oregon. “It’s another indication of the deterioration of free speech.”
“I think it’s nuts,” Sara Daimes, 67, said of the removal, adding that she saw it as a further example of the Trump administration restricting free speech. “I give big points to the person or group that’s doing” the statues, she said. “I was looking forward to it.”
The Trump and Epstein statue was the latest in a series of politically charged sculptures critical of the president that have been placed in Washington and elsewhere by an anonymous group.
In June, the group placed an installation on the Mall titled “Dictator Approved” that included statements of support for Trump from authoritarian leaders Russian President Vladimir Putin, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
The first piece of protest art by the group appeared last October, when it installed a replica of former House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-California) desk that included a (fake) pile of poop on top of it. That work paid mock tribute to the Jan. 6 rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election.
The White House derided the statue’s placement in a statement on Tuesday.
“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,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in an email. “Democrats, the media, and the organization that’s wasting their money on this statue knew about Epstein and his victims for years and did nothing to help them while President Trump was calling for transparency, and is now delivering on it with thousands of pages of documents.”