• Source:JND
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A provocative new art installation has appeared in the heart of Washington, DC, depicting US President Donald Trump holding hands with the late financier Jeffrey Epstein. The statue, titled “Best Friends Forever”, was created by an anonymous collective known as The Secret Handshake. The statue has been permitted to remain on display until the evening of September 28 by the National Park Service.

The 12-foot-tall statue, constructed from foam, resin, wood, and wire, shows Trump and Epstein smiling at each other, one leg lifted in the air. It was positioned directly across from the US Capitol on 3rd Street, between Madison and Jefferson avenues, facing the Washington Monument.

At the base of the sculpture, a plaque reads: “In honor of Friendship Month, we celebrate the long-lasting bond between President Donald Trump and his ‘closest friend’ Jeffrey Epstein.” Additional plaques surrounding the installation highlight what the artists describe as the pair’s “decades-long friendship.”

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Anonymous Group Behind The Work

The Secret Handshake, said to be fewer than five members strong, has stayed largely anonymous. In a statement to USA Today, the group explained: “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.”

This is not the group’s first political stunt. Since June, they have produced two other anti-Trump pieces in Washington: the eight-foot-tall “Dictator Approved” statue, depicting a golden thumbs-up crushing the Statue of Liberty’s crown, and the multimedia “Gold TV” project, showing Trump dancing alongside controversial figures, including Epstein.

White House Response

The White House quickly criticized the latest installation. A spokesperson dismissed it as a partisan stunt, saying: “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.” Trump himself has repeatedly attempted to distance from Epstein, saying they had a falling out years before Epstein’s arrest. 

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Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019, was connected to several prominent figures including former President Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew, and former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. His long list of associations continues to spark controversy whenever new revelations emerge.