The Aftermath: The Evening The Activist Group Beamed Pictures Featuring Trump and Epstein onto Windsor Castle
When the announcement was made for the former president's second state visit, complete with a royal dinner at Windsor on September 17th, 2025, the protest group known as Led By Donkeys was determined to ensure it did not go without a statement. The act of offering a lavish welcome was viewed as especially servile. Their subsequent creative protest unfolded with precision.
A Deliberate Message
Activists created a short documentary detailing the connections with notorious figure Jeffrey Epstein. It concluded: “The commander-in-chief of the United States is alleged to have been a long-time close friend of the nation's most infamous sex offender. He’s alleged to be mentioned, numerous times, in the files related to the investigation into that individual … Now that president, Donald Trump, is a guest in Windsor Castle.” (In response, Trump has stated he fell out with Epstein years before Epstein’s initial legal troubles and has consistently denied all allegations in relation to Epstein.)
The Setup
The activists had secured rooms in the nearby Harte and Garter hotel, rooms advertised with “castle view” and, more crucially, “castle view superior”, according to a co-founder, Ben Stewart. They utilized a powerful projector. For audio, Stewart placed a Bluetooth speaker, hidden inside a cereal box, atop a garbage can outside.
The world’s media was assembled, their gaze fixed at the castle, growing restless as Trump was delayed. The film, however, gained traction globally. “Although the still pictures of Epstein and Trump went viral online,” Stewart notes, “I doubt that persuades anyone of anything – it simply makes Trump uncomfortable. The film we made gives people a social object to share, implying: ‘There’s something really serious to examine here.’ We took a piece of guerrilla journalism about Trump and Epstein, and it was seen 20m times.”
The Moment of Projection
The film began with the recognizable Windsor Castle logo. “It requires a cylindrical building requires some technical calibration,” Stewart explains. “So there’s the royal coat of arms. The police likely thought: ‘Ah, that’s nice – the royal family,’ and suddenly a great big picture of Jeffrey Epstein appears. This electric jolt passed through the officers nearby, and the police raced into the hotel.”
A History of Activism
It wasn't the group’s first rodeo; it wasn’t even their first effort against Trump. Back in 2018, while working for Greenpeace, Stewart piloted a paraglider over the hotel where the then-president was staying in Scotland. A year later, police visited him that any repeat, his safety wasn't assured.
Confrontation with Police
However, the activists weren't overly concerned about detainment. “My nervous energy goes into ensuring the protest works,” notes Oliver Knowles, another co-founder. “Once the police make the intervention, the die is cast.” The police response was rapid, reaching the hotel within three minutes, highly agitated, Knowles recalls. “Wearing tactical gear and baseball caps. They’d finally found the culprits. They came roaring up the stairs; prepared; tasked to protect the president. Thankfully, no firearms. But they were extremely tense when they entered the room. I told them: ‘We should keep this really calm.’”
Delaying multiple police officers is a long time. It helped that officers didn’t know which law to make arrests. When they finally entered the room, “a policeman started reading a clause of the Town and Country Planning Act, which another officer told him to stop because it wasn’t right.” Knowles and three additional team members were subsequently detained for malicious communication, a stalking law. “and it’s very specific: its purpose is to deal with a really concerning offence. To throw it at an act of journalism, displayed on a wall, in defense of the reputation of the president, seemed against the spirit of the legislation,” Stewart says archly. While the others were detained, he slipped away, then soon after boarded a train out of Windsor, contacting legal counsel.
An Ironic Interrogation
Some time in the middle of the night, as the detainees sat in cells at Maidenhead police station, officers came in and re-arrested them, this time for public nuisance, deeming it more likely to succeed. During interrogation, the sole available interrogators belonged to the child protection squad – an irony which was not lost on anyone, given the focus of the protest concerned alleged sex offender. The activists responded to every question with: “I have no comment.” Shortly after starting the interview, police presented a photo: “They asked, did you remove the drawer from this bedside table?’ ‘No comment.’ ‘Mr Knowles, do you know anyone who may have had reason to remove the drawer?’ ‘No comment.’ I anticipated the next move: a picture of a giant projector, ratchet-strapped to four drawers. At that point, the detectives struggled to maintain their composure.”
The Outcome
A little more than a month later, every charge was dismissed.
