A 12-foot statue of US President Donald Trump and the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein holding hands has been erected near the White House.
The bronze statue, placed on the east end of the National Mall in Washington DC, features three plaques, one of which reads: “We celebrate the long-lasting bond between President Donald J. Trump and his ‘closest friend,’ Jeffrey Epstein”.
The statue has been created “in honour of friendship month”, and will stay on the grounds until 8pm on Sunday on account of a permit from the National Park Service.
This stunt comes after Trump recently came under fire for his alleged letter in Epstein’s 50th birthday book – a 238-page collection of lewd messages, drawings and explicit pictures, compiled by Ghislaine Maxwell.
The letter to Epstein, allegedly written by Trump, is a poem superimposed over a woman’s body, featuring Trump’s signature at the bottom.
Extracts from the letter feature on one of the statue’s plaques, which reads: “We have certain things in common, Jeffrey.
“A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday – and may everyday be another wonderful secret”.
The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, strongly refuted Trump’s involvement in the birthday book.
A White House spokesperson also denounced the statue in a statement which read: “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 organisation 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 mystery artist behind the statue is not yet known.
The statue comes after several public stunts were carried out at Windsor Castle to highlight the relationship between the pair on Trump’s unprecedented second state visit to the UK.
These included a giant picture of Trump and Epstein being unfurled on the Windsor Castle lawn, along with a projection of the image onto the castle, after which four men were arrested.
Trump and Epstein’s friendship was well-documented by the media, after the duo were photographed together at parties together during the 1990s and early 2000s.
In 2002, the US President called Epstein a “terrific guy” in an interview with New York Magazine, but the pair’s friendship seems to have ended in the mid-2000s.
After Epstein was arrested under sex trafficking charges in 2019, Trump said he hadn’t spoken to the disgraced financier in 15 years.
