A statue of President Trump holding hands with Jeffrey Epstein appeared briefly on D.C.'s National Mall this week, only to be removed after less than a day.
The bronze-painted installation, titled Best Friends Forever, depicts the two men smiling at each other, each with an arm and leg raised as if in mid-frolic.
"In Honor of Friendship Month, we celebrate the long-lasting bond between President Donald J. Trump and his 'closest friend,' Jeffrey Epstein," reads the plaque, emblazoned with hands making a heart shape. September is widely recognized as friendship month.
Trump has repeatedly downplayed his relationship with Epstein, the convicted sex offender who died in jail in August 2019. But it remains a sore spot for the president, as his administration faces continued calls to release the Epstein files, a trove of documents from various investigations into the disgraced financier.
A group called The Secret Handshake claimed responsibility for the statue after it arrived on the National Mall on Tuesday morning. And while a National Park Service permit issued for the statue — obtained by NPR — allowed it to remain there until Sunday evening, eyewitness video showed U.S. Park Police hauling it onto a truck before sunrise on Wednesday.
A spokesperson for the Department of the Interior told NPR that the statue was removed "because it was not compliant with the permit issued," though did not specify how.
The Secret Handshake is accusing the Trump administration of illegally removing the statue as part of its crackdown on speech it disagrees with, on the heels of ABC's temporary suspension of Jimmy Kimmel's late-night show under pressure from the Federal Communications Commission.
The White House did not respond to NPR's questions about the artwork's removal, but had previously criticized it.
"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 spokesperson Abigail Jackson told NPR on Wednesday.
A Secret Handshake group member, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation from the Trump administration, told NPR over email that it found out late Tuesday that "some people within the parks department aka most likely the Trump administration were trying to find ways to say we were not in compliance."
They said the group was reassured that if that were to happen, it would get 24 hours' written notice to remove the statue themselves, as required by the permit.
"Instead, they showed up in the middle of the night without notice and physically toppled the statue, broke it, and took it away," the member said. "We do not know where it is."
On Wednesday afternoon, the group member told NPR they had been allowed to see the statue, and sent NPR pictures of the figures, ripped from their pedestals and broken into pieces.
Friendship as a sensitive subject
Trump and Epstein ran in similar circles in Florida and New York City beginning in the 1980s. They socialized at parties and flew together on Epstein's private jet. In one 2002 interview, Trump called Epstein "a terrific guy" and referenced their shared penchant for beautiful women.
But Trump says their friendship ended before 2006, when Epstein was indicted for soliciting prostitution.
In 2019, after Epstein was arrested on sex trafficking charges, Trump repeatedly described himself as "not a fan" and said the two hadn't spoken since a falling out some 15 years earlier. And in July, Trump said he had banned Epstein from his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida after Epstein repeatedly "stole" employees who worked at the spa there, including some young women.
Epstein's life and death remain the focus of intense public scrutiny and suspicion, particularly when it comes to allegations that his wealthy, powerful network helped facilitate and cover up his crimes. The names of several powerful figures — including Trump — have appeared in flight logs and other already-released records related to Epstein's case, though there is no public evidence that they have been involved in Epstein's offenses.
Trump's refusal to release the Epstein files — despite his campaign vow to do so — has prompted criticism across the aisle and pressure from Congress.
In August, the House Oversight Committee subpoenaed thousands of pages of records from the Justice Department regarding its investigation into Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell. It released some of those documents earlier this month.
Among them was a copy of a book of 50th birthday well-wishes that Epstein's friends had made for him in 2003, which includes a crude image signed by Trump. When the Wall Street Journal first reported on the note in July, Trump dismissed it as "fake" and sued the publication for defamation.
Notably, the plaques beneath the Trump and Epstein statues that briefly graced the mall bear quotes from that letter, including: "Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret."
A series of satirical statues
The friendship statue is one of several anti-Trump sculptures to materialize in the heart of D.C. in the past year. The Secret Handshake told NPR it is responsible for almost all of them, and never had trouble getting permits for any of them.
The first arrived on the National Mall late last October, just ahead of the 2024 election. It was a bronze replica of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's desk, topped with her nameplate, a landline phone, Post-it Notes, file folders and a perfectly swirled pile of feces, a la poop emoji.
The statue, titled The Resolute Desk, bore a plaque honoring "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 installation made such a splash that the group extended its permit an extra week, through the day after the election.
A few days after the desk landed on the Mall, another bronze statue — of a fist clutching a tiki torch — made its debut in Freedom Plaza, just blocks from the White House.
Titled The Donald J. Trump Enduring Flame, its imagery and plaque referenced the 2017 "Unite the Right" white nationalist rally — and Trump's reaction to it.
"This monument pays tribute to President Donald Trump and the 'very fine people' he boldly stood to defend when they marched in Charlottesville, Virginia," it read.
Two more satirical statues popped up in a similar spot on the National Mall this June.
One showed a giant, golden thumbs up crushing the Statue of Liberty's crown and head. On its pedestal were the words "DICTATOR APPROVED" and quotes from various authoritarian world leaders praising Trump: Russia's Vladimir Putin, Hungary's Viktor Orbán, North Korea's Kim Jong Un and Brazil's former president, Jair Bolsonaro.
The following week, that statue was replaced with one of a golden bald eagle perched on a gilded television set, which played a continuous loop of Trump dancing. The pedestal beneath it quoted the White House's response to the previous week's statue.
"In the United States of America you have the freedom to display your so-called 'art,' no matter how ugly it is," it reads.
Earlier this month, during the Federal Reserve's interest rate meeting, a golden-hued statue of Trump holding up a giant bitcoin appeared on the Mall for a single day. That was not the work of The Secret Handshake, the group says.
A collective of cryptocurrency investors took credit for the statue at the time, saying it was designed to prompt "conversation about the future of government-issued currency" and "reflection on cryptocurrency's growing influence."
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