The Unfolding Events: The Evening The Activist Group Beamed Pictures Featuring Trump and Epstein on to Windsor Castle
When the announcement was made for the former president's upcoming official trip, complete with a Windsor Castle banquet on 17 September 2025, the activist collective known as Led By Donkeys felt compelled not to let it pass unprotested. The gesture of rolling out the red carpet seemed especially servile. Their subsequent creative protest unfolded like clockwork.
A Provocative Film
The group produced a short documentary exploring Donald Trump’s relationship with notorious figure Jeffrey Epstein. It concluded: “The president of the United States was a long-time close friend of America’s most notorious child sex trafficker. He’s alleged to be referenced, numerous times, in the files related to the investigation into Epstein … And now that very man, Donald Trump, is sleeping here within Windsor Castle.” (In response, Trump has stated he ended his friendship with Epstein years before Epstein’s initial legal troubles and repeatedly refuted all allegations concerning Epstein.)
The Setup
The activists had secured rooms in the adjacent Harte and Garter hotel, which boast “castle view” and, even more helpfully, superior castle views, said a co-founder, Ben Stewart. They utilized a powerful 32,000-lumen projector. For audio, Stewart placed a Bluetooth speaker, hidden inside a cereal box, on top of a garbage can outside.
The world’s media had gathered, staring at the castle, growing restless awaiting Trump's arrival. The film, however, spread rapidly everywhere. “Although photographs of Epstein and Trump spread like wildfire online,” Stewart says, “I’m not sure that persuades anyone of anything – it simply makes Trump uncomfortable. The film we made gives people something tangible 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 viewed 20m times.”
The Moment of Projection
It started with the official Windsor Castle logo. “It requires the castle's round tower requires some technical calibration,” Stewart states. “First appeared the royal coat of arms. The police likely thought: ‘Ah, that’s nice – the royal family,’ and then abruptly a massive image of Jeffrey Epstein appears. A wave of shock goes through the police in fluorescent jackets around me, and the police all pile into the hotel.”
Not Their First Protest
It wasn't their inaugural action; it wasn’t even their first action against Trump. Back in 2018, while working for Greenpeace, Stewart had flown a paraglider near the resort where the president was staying in Scotland. A year later, officers warned him that any repeat, they couldn’t guarantee.
The Arrests
But, the activists weren't overly concerned about detainment. “All my anxiety goes into ensuring the action to succeed,” says Oliver Knowles, a fellow founder. “By the time the police make the intervention, the message is already out.” The police response was rapid, arriving in the lobby within three minutes, highly agitated, Knowles recalls. “They were in tactical gear and baseball caps. They had located the culprits. They came roaring up the stairs; they were briefed; they were on a mission to protect the president. Fortunately, no firearms. But they were very adrenalised when they entered the room. I had to say: ‘Let’s keep this really calm.’”
Delaying a large number of police officers for six minutes. The fact that officers didn’t know which law to make arrests. When they finally entered the room, “one officer started reading a clause of the Town and Country Planning Act, before another asked him to stop as it was incorrect.” Knowles and three other team members were then arrested for malicious communication, a law related to harassment. “The law is precise: it’s designed to address a serious offence. To throw it at a piece of journalism, projected on to a wall, in defense of the reputation of the president, appeared against the spirit of the legislation,” Stewart says archly. While the others were detained, he slipped away, shortly thereafter was on 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 arrested them again, this time for public nuisance, deeming it more likely to succeed. During interrogation, the sole available interrogators belonged to the child protection unit – an irony which was palpable, given the subject matter of the protest involved Jeffrey Epstein. Knowles and his associates just answered all queries with: “I have no comment.” A few minutes into the interview, the officers slid over a photo: “‘Mr Knowles, did you remove the drawer from this bedside table?’ ‘No comment.’ ‘Mr Knowles, do you know anyone who may have had cause to take the drawer?’ ‘No comment.’ I knew the next move: an image of a large projector, ratchet-strapped to four drawers. Then, the officers struggled to maintain their composure.”
The Final Result
Just over one month later, every charge were dropped.
