In the early hours before sunrise on Wednesday, September 24, 2025, a striking bronze-painted statue depicting former President Donald Trump holding hands with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was swiftly removed from Washington, D.C.’s National Mall. The statue, titled Best Friends Forever, was installed just a day earlier by an anonymous activist collective known as The Secret Handshake to mark Friendship Month, but its tenure was cut short by U.S. Park Police. The abrupt removal has ignited a heated debate about public art, political satire, and the boundaries of protest in the nation’s capital.
The installation, which appeared near the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday morning, September 23, was hard to miss. Cast in bronze paint, it depicted Trump and Epstein mid-frolic, arms and legs raised, grinning at each other as if caught in a moment of gleeful camaraderie. The statue’s base featured a plaque that read, “In Honor of Friendship Month, we celebrate the long-lasting bond between President Donald J. Trump and his ‘closest friend,’ Jeffrey Epstein,” complete with hands forming a heart shape. September, after all, is widely recognized as Friendship Month—a detail the group used to underscore the satirical nature of their work.
Yet, before the sun rose on Wednesday, the statue had vanished. According to eyewitness video and accounts provided to NPR and HuffPost, U.S. Park Police arrived in the dead of night, toppled the statue, and hauled it away on a truck. The Secret Handshake alleges that not only was the statue removed without the required 24-hour written notice, but it was also broken in the process—a claim supported by photos the group later shared, showing the figures ripped from their pedestals and shattered into pieces.
“We found out at the end of the day 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. We were then told everything is OK and that if the administration decided to remove it we would have 24 hours notice to take it down ourselves,” a Secret Handshake member told HuffPost, speaking anonymously out of fear of retaliation. “Instead, they showed up in the middle of the night without notice and physically toppled the statue, broke it, and took it away.”
The group insists they had a valid permit for the installation, which was supposed to last until Sunday evening, September 28. A copy of the permit, reviewed by both NPR and HuffPost, described the statue as 6 feet by 3.5 feet. However, the group says the actual statue, including its base, stood 12 feet tall—a detail they claim was properly submitted but not recorded on the final permit by the Parks Department. This discrepancy became the official reason for removal. In a video shared with HuffPost, a National Park Service official can be heard telling onlookers, “Requirements of the permit state that it has to be 6 foot by 3.5 foot and this is 9 foot by—and larger than that. So we’re out of compliance here.”
The Department of the Interior, which oversees the National Park Service, confirmed to NPR that the statue was removed “because it was not compliant with the permit issued,” but did not elaborate further. The Secret Handshake disputes the justification, pointing out that the permit allows for revocation with 24 hours’ written notice except in cases of imminent threat to park property—a standard they argue was not met. “We resubmitted the specs and were told that if they decided to revoke our permit we would be given 24 hours’ notice,” the group’s leader told HuffPost. “Instead, people showed up in the middle of the night, destroyed it and hauled it away.”
The White House declined to comment on the statue’s removal, but previously criticized the installation. “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. Trump himself has repeatedly downplayed his relationship with Epstein, claiming their friendship ended before 2006 and that he had banned Epstein from his Mar-a-Lago club after Epstein allegedly “stole” spa employees. In a 2002 interview, Trump once called Epstein “a terrific guy,” referencing their shared social circles and taste for beautiful women, but in the years since Epstein’s 2019 arrest and subsequent death, Trump has insisted he was “not a fan.”
The statue’s plaque featured a quote from a 2003 birthday book for Epstein, signed by Trump: “Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.” Trump has dismissed the note as “fake” and even sued the Wall Street Journal for defamation after it published the letter in July. The inclusion of this quote on the statue’s base was a pointed reminder of the persistent questions surrounding Trump’s past association with Epstein—questions that have only intensified amid ongoing Congressional pressure for the release of all Epstein-related files.
The Secret Handshake’s installation is just the latest in a series of satirical, anti-Trump sculptures that have appeared in D.C. over the past year. According to NPR, the group has been responsible for several provocative pieces, including a bronze replica of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s desk topped with a poop emoji, a fist clutching a tiki torch referencing the 2017 Charlottesville rally, and a golden thumbs up crushing the Statue of Liberty’s crown bearing the words “DICTATOR APPROVED” alongside quotes from authoritarian leaders praising Trump. Another statue, a gilded bald eagle perched on a television playing a loop of Trump dancing, appeared briefly in June, while a separate group of cryptocurrency investors installed a golden-hued Trump holding a giant bitcoin earlier this month.
Each installation has provoked strong reactions, both from the public and from officials. The Secret Handshake claims it never had trouble securing permits for previous statues, but this time, the removal was sudden and, they argue, politically motivated. “We do not know where it is,” the group’s member told NPR after the statue was taken away. Later, they were allowed to view the broken pieces, underscoring the contentious fate of their protest art.
Beyond the spectacle, the statue’s brief appearance and dramatic removal have reignited debates about the limits of protest, the role of public art in political discourse, and the enduring shadow cast by Epstein’s crimes and connections. As calls for the release of the so-called “Epstein files” continue to mount in Congress, the episode on the National Mall serves as a vivid reminder of the unresolved questions and deep divisions that persist in American public life.
For now, the remains of Best Friends Forever sit out of sight, but the controversy it sparked is likely to linger, fueling ongoing conversations about power, accountability, and the ever-evolving landscape of protest in the nation’s capital.
