The Daily Populous Wednesday September 24th, 2025 morning edition
Authored by independent.co.uk and submitted by GOD_DAMN_YOU_FINE

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice

A massive statue depicting Donald Trump and late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein holding hands has appeared on the National Mall as the months-long Epstein Files saga continues to haunt the administration.

The 12-foot statue — a combination of foam, resin, wood and wire — shows Trump and Epstein standing on pedestals, holding hands and smiling at one another as they appear about to frolic through the park toward the Washington Monument in Washington, DC.

Below the statue, there are three plaques, two of which contain excerpts from the bawdy birthday letter Trump allegedly wrote Epstein for his 50th birthday.

A copy of the letter, featuring a hand-drawn figure of a naked woman along with the president’s reported signature, was made public this month by the House Oversight Committee. Trump has denied any involvement with the letter, even suing the Wall Street Journal, which first published a report about it for $10 billion, claiming that “no authentic letter or drawing exists.”

The statue appeared early Tuesday morning in honor of Friendship Month. It will remain there until Saturday, a spokesperson for The Secret Handshake, an anonymous group of fewer than five individuals who put up the statue, told The Independent. The statue is about “celebrating the friendship of these real men.”

A White House spokesperson denounced the National Mall’s new addition, telling The Independent in a statement: “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. 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.”

open image in gallery New statue of Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein holding hands crops up on the National Mall during Friendship Month ( The Secret Handshake )

“There’s very few people who have gone on the record and called Trump one of his good friends,” the spokesperson said.

The friendship between the two men is well-documented.

The pair were photographed together at parties in the 1990s and early 2000s, including at Trump’s 1993 wedding to Marla Maples at the Plaza Hotel in New York City.

open image in gallery A plaque below the statue includes an excerpt from the alleged bawdy birthday card from Trump to Epstein for his 50th birthday, which the president has denied writing ( The Secret Handshake )

Trump called Epstein a “terrific guy" in a 2002 New York Magazine article, while recordings of Epstein, obtained by the Daily Beast last year, captured the convicted sex offender describing himself as Trump’s “closest friend.”

Their friendship dissolved around the mid-2000s. After Epstein's arrest on sex trafficking charges in 2019, the president told reporters he hadn't spoken to him in 15 years; in July, Trump revealed that he had ended his friendship with Epstein after he “stole” young female employees from his private club. The president has repeatedly called the late financier a “creep” in recent months.

open image in gallery Another plaque states the statue is meant to 'celebrate the long-lasting bond' between Trump and Epstein ( The Secret Handshake )

While the president has never been accused of wrongdoing in connection with the Epstein case, Trump’s friendship with Epstein has been under the microscope since July, when the DOJ released a memo putting an end to years-long conspiracy theories around Epstein’s sudden 2019 death.

He died by suicide behind bars while awaiting his sex trafficking trial and there is no evidence to support the existence of a so-called “client list” of wealthy, famous figures involved in his alleged sex trafficking, the FBI concluded. The DOJ also stated that no “further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted” related to the case, mere months after it released “Phase 1” of the Epstein files.

open image in gallery Trump and Epstein appear to be happily frolicking toward the Washington Monument in a new statue put there by The Secret Handshake, a small anonymous group ( The Secret Handshake )

Survivors of Epstein’s abuse, members of Congress, and even some of his MAGA following have grown incensed over the Trump administration’s handling of the case, calling for increased transparency around the Epstein Files. Earlier this month, the DOJ released tens of thousands of Epstein files, most of which were already publicly available, according to lawmakers.

Some survivors have said they are creating a database of people involved, creating their own “client list.”

USDXBS on September 23rd, 2025 at 19:33 UTC »

Well it's up, and we can't take statues down because of history.

epidemicsaints on September 23rd, 2025 at 17:52 UTC »

Throwback to the bronze of Netanyahu pooping that appeared overnight in Tel Aviv four years ago, along with a table covered in snacks.

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/statue-of-netanyahu-relieving-himself-erected-in-tel-aviv-662266

alien_from_Europa on September 23rd, 2025 at 17:47 UTC »

> A White House spokesperson denounced the National Mall’s new addition, telling The Independent in a statement: “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. 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."

> There’s very few people who have gone on the record and called Trump one of his good friends,” the spokesperson said.

[...]

> Trump called Epstein a “terrific guy" in a 2002 New York Magazine article, while recordings of Epstein, obtained by the Daily Beast last year, captured the convicted sex offender describing himself as Trump’s “closest friend.”

Gaslight

Obstruct

Project