A statue of President Donald Trump and the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was unveiled Sept. 23, 2025 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
A statue of President Donald Trump and the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was unveiled Sept. 23, 2025 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

As President Donald Trump was preparing to speak to the United Nations in New York City on Tuesday, Sept. 23, a statue of the Republican leader mysteriously appeared on the National Mall back in Washington, DC.

Unlike the gilded installation of the president unveiled last week that praised his support of cryptocurrency, this most recent statue is not of the flattering sort. The 12-foot piece depicts the president holding hands with the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, each looking at the other and smiling. They are both shown balancing on one leg, in the middle of what the piece's creators describe as a prance.

In one of three plaques affixed to the work's base, which is painted to look like marble, an inscription reads: "We celebrate the long-lasting bond between President Donald J. Trump and his 'closest friend' Jeffrey Epstein."

A group called The Secret Handshake is taking credit for the surprise protest art piece, which is the third such anti-Trump installation to pop up in the capital since June. The group also erected the so-called "Dictator Approved" piece, an 8-foot-tall sculpture of a hand squashing the crown of the Statue of Liberty while making a thumbs-up gesture; and the "Gold TV statue" multimedia installation, in which a golden TV showed images of Trump dancing, including with Epstein.

"We're a very small group of citizens who are using art, irony, and humor to express social commentary and spark political conversation in public spaces," the group said in a Sept. 23 statement to USA TODAY.

The Secret Handshake said the piece is in celebration of “Friendship Month," a tongue-in-cheek reference to the once-close friendship between Trump and Epstein, who died by suicide in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Trump's administration has come under intense criticism over its handling of records related to the case, rankling many leading voices within the MAGA-sphere.

The statue is across the street from the U.S. Capitol building, facing the expanse of the National Mall lawns that lead to the Washington Monument. The Secret Handshake said the installation is permitted with the National Park Service and should remain up through the end of the week.

The two other plaques, placed at the foot of the statue's depictions of Trump and Epstein, include lines from a controversial birthday note the president allegedly wrote to Epstein in 2003. The birthday note, written in the form of a conversation between "Jeffrey" and "Donald," was publicly released by the House Oversight Committee on Sept. 8. The note's lines of text are surrounded by the outline of a naked woman's body and Trump's purported signature is in the place of pubic hair. Trump has denied writing the note and has sued The Wall Street Journal for its initial reporting on the matter.

Protest art installations related to the Epstein scandal have followed the president overseas, as well. Four people in England were arrested in connection with images of Trump with his arm around the late sex offender that were projected onto Windsor Castle, the home of the British royal family, during the president's state visit to the United Kingdom on Sept. 16.

This story has been updated.

Contributing: Kinsey Crowley, USA TODAY NETWORK.

Kathryn Palmer is a politics reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her at kapalmer@usatoday.com and on X @KathrynPlmr.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Protest art of Trump, Epstein holding hands appears on National Mall

Reporting by Kathryn Palmer, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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