A 12-foot-tall statue of Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein holding hands in a frozen-in-time flirty frolic materialized on the National Mall Tuesday.
The anonymous artists, who also created the Trump-related “Golden Television” back in June, say they wanted to “celebrate the long-lasting bond between President Donald J. Trump and his ‘closest friend,’ Jeffrey Epstein,” according to a plaque at the base of the faux-bronze wood, foam and resin statue informing viewers that September is informally known as Friendship Month.
Trump’s camp was less than pleased as word got around about the larger-than-life statue of Trump gamboling with the late, disgraced, pedophile sex-trafficking financier.
“Liberals are free to waste their money however they see fit,” a White House spokesman told TMZ.
“We felt that Trump had quite a few friends throughout his life,” the artists’ representative “Patrick” told Artnews. “One of his friends was Jeffrey Epstein, so we wanted to celebrate that with a statue of what that friendship might feel like.”
Free speech activists demonstrate in front of a work of protest art representing President Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein, on the National Mall near the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
“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,” the unidentified spokesman told TMZ.
Documents from those purported files have been seeping out in recent years, some by court order and others by the Trump administration amid intense pressure from supporters and opponents alike. The artists, who are known to use the pseudonym “The Secret Handshake,” said the work carried no such agenda.
“There’s a lot of uproar on the left and the right about releasing the Epstein files,” they told Artnews via Patrick. “We have nothing to do with that. The information about their bond that’s public says a lot.”
A statue depicting U.S. President Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein holding hands is seen near the U.S. Capitol on September 23, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
The birthday book message alluding to pals and secrets that Trump allegedly penned to Epstein when the latter turned 50 is also quoted on the base of the statue.
“These two people had an affinity for each other, and they also seemingly had an affinity for abusing women in (their different) ways,” Patrick told Artnews. “Maybe that was their bond, maybe it wasn’t. But they have been pretty reliably accused of similar things.”
