A 10-foot-tall, 12-foot-wide replica of the birthday card Donald Trump allegedly sent to Jeffrey Epstein now stands on the National Mall—complete with a box of Sharpies so visitors can write their own messages to the president. The responses, according to The Daily Beast, have not been kind.
The massive protest piece, installed Monday by an anonymous collective called the Secret Handshake, recreates the now-infamous page from Epstein’s 50th “birthday book” featuring the outline of a nude woman’s body filled with a dialogue between “Donald” and “Jeffrey.”
The message reads: “We have certain things in common, Jeffrey. Enigmas never age, have you noticed that?… Happy birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.”
THE DETAILS: The installation has a National Park Service permit allowing it to remain through Friday. In front of the blown-up card sits a marble-look filing cabinet labeled “The Files,” with drawers spilling hundreds of paper strips—a pointed reference to the heavily redacted Epstein files that the Justice Department has failed to fully release despite a congressional mandate requiring disclosure by December 19.
Trump, 79, has denied writing the original note and insists the “Donald” signature isn’t his. He’s already sued The Wall Street Journal and its parent companies over their report revealing the card. His legal action is pending in federal court in Miami.
Epstein, who “died” in prison awaiting trial in 2019, would have turned 73 this Wednesday.
OF COURSE: The White House is furious. “Kudos to these Trump Deranged Liberals for constantly inventing new ways to light Democrat donor money on fire by spreading fake news,” deputy press secretary Abigail Jackson told The Daily Beast, pivoting to demand statues of Democrats she claimed had Epstein ties.
This isn’t the first clash between Trump and the Secret Handshake. The same group previously installed a 12-foot bronze-painted statue on the Mall depicting Trump and Epstein holding hands and skipping. That one was pulled early by U.S. Park Police, prompting censorship complaints.
BUT BUT BUT: The artists aren’t making anything up. D.C. resident Susan Fritz, 61, told The Washington Post she liked that the group “didn’t have to make anything up. They just had to blow it up and put it out here.”
By midmorning on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, visitors were already leaving messages. “Looking forward to your jail sentence, DJT!” one read. “The people will rise. We already are,” said another. A federal worker, declining to give her name, replied with a King quote: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that.”
WHY IT MATTERS: Under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, signed into law November 19, the Justice Department had 30 days to release all Epstein records. It blew past that deadline, has disclosed only a fraction of the trove, and now faces bipartisan accusations of flouting Congress’s mandate.
The giant birthday card is a very public reminder that questions about Trump’s relationship with the late pedophile remain unanswered—and that the administration appears in no hurry to change that.