A pop-up statue of President Donald Trump holding hands with late financier and child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein has gone back up on the National Mall, after the National Park Service took it down.
The reinstallation of the statue, known officially as the "Trump-Epstein Friendship Statue" and erected as a protest by a group known as Secret Handshake, was reported on X by Joe Heim of The Washington Post. Its return comes amid ongoing controversy about the Trump administration's refusal to release the full trove of files on the Epstein criminal case, and reporting that Trump himself is mentioned in the files.
The statue depicts Trump and Epstein holding hands, with a plaque displaying the salacious birthday poem displayed over a doodle of a naked woman that the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump had written to him in the early 2000s. Trump has denied writing the letter and sued the Journal and Rupert Murdoch for defamation over the story.
It was originally placed on the National Mall on Sept. 24, noted WUSA9.
"The original permit said it was allowed to remain on the Mall until 8 p.m. Sept. 28, however, it included a clause that the permit could be revoked at any time as long as the permittee was notified of the reason at least 24 hours in advance," the report said.
However, a member of Secret Handshake told local reporters, "All of a sudden, everything changed. We were informed that the Deputy Director of the National Park Service had stepped in and overridden our approved permit to revoke it once again. No explanation was given as to why. We were also told the deputy director said to never issue us a permit ever again."
The group further stated that the statue was damaged when the Park Service originally removed it.
This is not the first statue that has gone up on the National Mall this year to protest or mock Trump. In June, after Trump derided art installations in the area as "ugly," a statue was erected of a golden TV with wings, playing a loop of Trump awkwardly dancing.