The Trump-Epstein statue is back on the National Mall, days after its abrupt removal

A statue of President Donald Trump skipping hand-in-hand with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has returned to D.C.'s National Mall, over a week after it was abruptly removed in the pre-dawn hours.

The bronze-painted statue, originally titled Best Friends Forever but since renamed Why Can't We Be Friends?, turned heads when it appeared in front of the U.S. Capitol on Sept. 23. Its plaque celebrates "the long-lasting bond between President Donald J. Trump and his 'closest friend,' Jeffrey Epstein."

Trump has sought to downplay his friendship with the disgraced financier, who died in jail in August 2019. He maintains they had a falling out sometime before Epstein was indicted for soliciting prostitution in 2006, at least in part due to Epstein poaching employees — including young women — who worked at Trump's Mar-a-Lago spa.

Last week, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told NPR in a statement that "it's not news that Epstein knew Donald Trump, because Donald Trump kicked Epstein out of his club for being a creep."

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A group called The Secret Handshake — which was behind other satirical anti-Trump statues in D.C. over the past year — obtained a permit from the National Park Service (NPS) to display the friendship statue through Sept. 28, according to records shared with NPR. But U.S. Park Police hauled it onto a truck and carried it away before sunrise on Sept. 24, less than a full day after it appeared.

A Secret Handshake group member, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation from the Trump administration, told NPR over email at the time that they did not get 24 hours' written notice as required by the permit.

A spokesperson for the Department of the Interior told NPR that the statue was removed "because it was not compliant with the permit issued," though did not specify how. The White House did not respond to NPR's questions about the statue's removal.

The group was later able to recover the statue — with the figures ripped from their pedestals and broken into pieces — and set about trying to re-erect it. One week and one failed attempt later, Why Can't We Be Friends? returned to the Mall on Thursday.

Onlookers take pictures of the statue on Thursday, with the Washington Monument visible behind them.

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"Just like a toppled confederate general forced back onto a public square, the Donald Trump Jeffrey Epstein statue has risen from the rubble to stand gloriously on the National Mall once again," The Secret Handshake member wrote in an email to NPR.

The statue is permitted to remain on the Mall through 8 p.m. local time on Oct. 6.

This is actually the third permit the group has received for this statue. Late last week, the group told NPR it had applied for and received a second permit to install the repaired statue in the same spot. It said they were on their way to the Mall when NPS suddenly revoked their permit by phone "without explanation." That prompted the group to release 3D-printable versions of the statue online.

NPR has reached out to NPS for comment but did not hear back by publication time. The federal government has shut down since last week's events, putting thousands of the agency's employees on furlough.

The Trump administration continues to face calls to release the "Epstein files," a trove of documents from various investigations into Epstein that then-candidate Trump had vowed to release if reelected. His refusal to do so has prompted criticism and pressure from Congress, with the House Oversight Committee subpoenaing — and publishing — thousands of pages of documents in its own investigation.

A NPR/PBS News/Marist poll released Wednesday found that 61% of Americans disapprove of Trump's handling of the Epstein files, with 77% in favor of their release with the victims' names removed.
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