The Aftermath: The Night Led By Donkeys Beamed Pictures Featuring Trump and Epstein on to Windsor Castle
When plans were revealed for Donald Trump’s second state visit, including a royal dinner at Windsor on 17 September 2025, the protest group Led By Donkeys felt compelled to ensure it did not go without a statement. The gesture of offering a lavish welcome seemed particularly craven. Their subsequent art-activist event proceeded with precision.
A Deliberate Message
The group produced a nine-minute film exploring Donald Trump’s relationship with notorious figure Jeffrey Epstein. It concluded: “The commander-in-chief of the United States is alleged to have been a longstanding associate of the nation's most infamous child sex trafficker. He’s alleged to be referenced, repeatedly, in documents related to the investigation into that individual … And now that very man, Donald Trump, is sleeping here in Windsor Castle.” (For his part, Trump has stated he fell out with Epstein long prior to Epstein’s first arrest and repeatedly refuted all allegations concerning Epstein.)
Preparations and Execution
The group had secured rooms in the nearby Harte and Garter hotel, rooms advertised with views of the castle and, even more helpfully, “castle view superior”, said group founder, Ben Stewart. They utilized a powerful 32,000-lumen projector. To broadcast sound, Stewart placed a wireless speaker, hidden inside a cereal box, on top of a garbage can outside.
The world’s media had gathered, their gaze fixed at the castle, becoming bored as Trump was delayed. Their film, gained traction globally. “Although the still pictures of Epstein and Trump spread like wildfire online,” Stewart says, “I doubt that persuades anyone of anything – it just makes Trump uneasy. The film we made provides viewers a social object to share, saying: ‘This is something significant to examine here.’ We took an act of activist journalism about Trump and Epstein, and it was viewed by millions.”
The Moment of Projection
It started with the official Windsor Castle logo. “Projecting onto the castle's round tower needs some technical calibration,” Stewart states. “First appeared this royal crest. Officers are thinking: ‘How pleasant – a royal tribute,’ and then abruptly a massive image of Jeffrey Epstein appears. A wave of shock goes through the officers around me, and the police all pile into the hotel.”
Not Their First Protest
It wasn't their inaugural action; nor was it their first action targeting Trump. In 2018, while working for Greenpeace, Stewart had flown a motorized paraglider near the resort where the president was staying in Scotland. A year later, police visited him that if he tried again, they couldn’t guarantee.
Confrontation with Police
However, the group's creators were not overly concerned about arrest. “My nervous energy is channelled into wanting the protest works,” says Oliver Knowles, a fellow founder. “Once the police arrive, the message is already out.” The police response was swift, 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; they were briefed; tasked to safeguard the guest. Fortunately, no guns. But they were very adrenalised upon entering the room. I had to say: ‘We should keep this calm.’”
Delaying multiple police officers for six minutes. It helped that officers didn’t know under what 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 because it wasn’t right.” Knowles and three additional team members were subsequently detained for malicious communications, a stalking law. “The law is precise: its purpose is to address a really concerning offence. Applying it to a piece of journalism, displayed on a wall, to protect the reputation of the president, seemed against the spirit of the legislation,” Stewart remarks pointedly. While the others were detained, he slipped away, then soon after was on a train out of Windsor, calling lawyers.
An Ironic Interrogation
Later in the middle of the night, while the activists sat in cells at Maidenhead police station, police re-entered and re-arrested them, this time for causing a public nuisance, having decided a stronger charge. When they came to be questioned, the sole available interrogators belonged to the child protection unit – an irony that was not lost on anyone, given the subject matter of the protest concerned Jeffrey Epstein. Knowles and his associates responded to all queries with: “I have no comment.” A few minutes into the interview, the officers slid over a photograph: “‘Mr Knowles, did you remove the drawer from this bedside table?’ ‘No comment.’ ‘Mr Knowles, do you know anybody else who may have had reason to remove the drawer?’ ‘No comment.’ I anticipated what was coming: an image of a giant projector, secured to four drawers. At that point, the detectives struggled to keep a straight face.”
The Final Result
A little more than one month later, every charge was dismissed.
