A towering bronze-coloured statue of US President Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein holding hands has been installed in Washington, D.C. — and its abrupt reappearance is being seen as a provocation timed for maximum impact.
Reinstallation at a Politically Charged Moment
The 10-foot sculpture, titled ‘Best Friends Forever’, was placed on the sidewalk outside the prominent restaurant-bookstore-arts venue Busboys and Poets in the U Street corridor on 13 November 2025, coinciding with the release of thousands of new emails from the estate of Jeff Epstein by the United States House Committee on Oversight and Reform.
The anonymous art collective behind the piece, calling themselves ‘The Secret Handshake‘, said they chose this moment deliberately. ‘Much like Trump’s name in an Epstein e-mail dump, we have popped our head out to say an unannounced hello’, they said in a statement.
The statue originally appeared at the National Mall in September and again briefly in October, but was removed by the United States National Park Service for permit violations.
By contrast, this iteration stands on private property and is expected to remain for at least several days, giving it higher visibility and less immediate threat of removal.
The Timing Seen as ‘Worst’ for Trump
Observers describe the statue’s resurfacing as arriving ‘at the worst time’ for Trump, given the storm of renewed scrutiny over his past relationship with Epstein. The newly released emails include messages from Epstein to his former associate Ghislaine Maxwell claiming Trump ‘knew about the girls’ and spent ‘hours’ at Epstein’s residence with one of his victims.
The White House has publicly dismissed the emails as a ‘hoax’ and labelled the statue yet another example of what it calls ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’. White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said, ‘TDS Liberals think of endless ways to light their money on fire’.
From the statue’s placard, once reading ‘We celebrate the long-lasting bond between President Donald J. Trump and his ‘closest friend’ Jeffrey Epstein’, to its sudden disappearance and re-emergence, the piece plays like a visual metaphor for an association Trump has long sought to distance himself from.
Trump’s Ties to Epstein Under Renewed Focus
Trump’s relationship with Epstein has long been documented and contested. While Trump acknowledged knowing Epstein socially in the early 2000s, once calling him a ‘terrific guy’ and someone ‘a lot of fun to be with’, he later claimed they had a falling-out and had not spoken for 15 years.
The latest tranche of emails released by the House Oversight Committee reopened questions about the degree of Trump’s knowledge and involvement, intensifying pressure on his political circle and energising voices demanding transparency regarding the so-called ‘Epstein files’.
The statue captures that drama in physical form, as a dance-like image, the two figures are jovial, holding hands, very far from the typical grave poses of memorial statuary; thereby transforming the political controversy into visual theatre. And in an era where image and narrative collide, the installation becomes a lightning rod for arguable truths.
Why This Matters
Regardless of how one reads the statue, satire, protest, public spectacle, it leverages imagery to amplify an issue that remains deeply unsettled. The reappearance at what many consider the ‘worst time’ for Trump accentuates vulnerability in his narrative.
One bystander put it plainly, ‘You look at this and all the emails that are coming out now, and I think it’s pretty common sense the dominoes are going to fall’.
Art is rarely neutral. In this case, the statue forces the President’s relationship with Epstein back into public consciousness at a moment when many in Washington would rather it stay in the shadows. And by situating it at the heart of the political city, the act turns satire into pressure.
Originally published on IBTimes UK
