A statue of President Donald Trump and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein holding hands has reappeared on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., weeks after U.S. authorities took it down.
The bronze sculpture, titled “Best Friends Forever,” first appeared on Sept. 23 on the National Mall in Washington but was removed the following day.
The temporary installation, which depicts the men holding hands as they frolic, smile and stare into each other’s eyes, reappeared on Thursday amid a government shutdown.
“We celebrate the long-lasting bond between President Donald J. Trump and his ‘closest friend,’ Jeffrey Epstein,” reads a plaque at the foot of the installation.
Carved separately are quotes from a sexually suggestive note Trump allegedly wrote to Epstein on his 50th birthday.
According to NBC News, the National Park Service did not respond to its request for comment on the statue’s reappearance due to the ongoing government shutdown.
Last week, White House deputy press secretary Abigail Jackson dismissed the installation in a statement to the Hill.
“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,” she said. “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.”
A spokesperson for a group named the Anonymous Handshake, which claims responsibility for the statue, told British newspaper the Independent that it is about “celebrating the friendship of these real men.”
The statue, placed within walking distance of the White House, offered a reminder of Trump’s long-standing association with the billionaire financier, one that he has tried to shake amid mounting pressure from both his allies and adversaries to release the Epstein files.
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Trump has filed multiple billion-dollar lawsuits against media outlets for digging into documents allegedly tying him to Epstein, including a US$10-billion filing against the Wall Street Journal after it released the birthday letter, and a $15-billion defamation action against the New York Times, which was tossed out by a judge last week.
Trump and Epstein’s friendship has been widely documented. The pair were associates throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, socializing both casually and professionally, including at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
American financier Jeffrey Epstein (left) and Donald Trump pose together at the Mar-a-Lago estate, Palm Beach, Fla., 1997.
Davidoff Studios / Getty Images
The “Best Friends Forever” statue is one of several protest-style installations to appear in the U.S. capital city and beyond in recent times.
In September, ahead of Trump’s state visit to the United Kingdom, where he met with King Charles and other senior members of the Royal Family, as well as British Prime Minister Kier Starmer, a series of photographs showing Trump and Epstein together were projected onto the walls of Windsor Castle the day before the president and the monarch were set to meet on site.
Political campaign group Led By Donkeys project an image of Jeffrey Epstein and U.S. President Donald Trump onto Windsor Castle as Trump’s second state visit to the U.K. begins on Sept. 16, 2025 in Windsor, United Kingdom.
Mark Kerrison / Getty Images
Last October, a bronze statue of a giant pile of poop sitting on what represented Nancy Pelosi’s desk appeared on the National Mall in a dissident nod to the people who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
“This memorial honors the brave men and women who broke into the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021 to loot, urinate and defecate throughout those hallowed halls in order to overturn an election,” the plaque under the statue read.
“President Trump celebrates these heroes of January 6th as ‘unbelievable patriots’ and ‘warriors.’ This monument stands as a testament to their daring sacrifice and lasting legacy.”
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