What Happened Next: The Night The Activist Group Beamed Images of Trump and Epstein on to Windsor Castle
When plans were revealed for the former president's upcoming official trip, including a royal dinner at Windsor on September 17th, 2025, the protest group Led By Donkeys was determined not to let it pass without a statement. The act of rolling out the red carpet seemed especially servile. Their next creative protest proceeded with precision.
A Provocative Film
Activists created a short documentary detailing the connections with the late financier Jeffrey Epstein. It concluded: “The commander-in-chief of the United States was a long-time close friend of America’s most notorious child sex trafficker. He’s alleged to be mentioned, repeatedly, in documents from the criminal probe into that individual … Now that very man, Donald Trump, is sleeping here in Windsor Castle.” (For his part, Trump has stated he ended his friendship with Epstein long prior to Epstein’s first arrest and has consistently denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein.)
Preparations and Execution
The group had booked rooms in the nearby Harte and Garter hotel, which boast “castle view” and, more crucially, “castle view superior”, according to a co-founder, Ben Stewart. They utilized a powerful 32,000-lumen projector. For audio, Stewart placed a Bluetooth speaker, concealed inside a cereal box, on top of a garbage can outside.
The world’s media had gathered, their gaze fixed at the castle, growing restless as Trump was delayed. The film, however, gained traction globally. “While photographs of Epstein and Trump spread like wildfire online,” Stewart says, “I’m not sure that persuades anyone of anything – it just makes Trump uneasy. Our documentary gives people something tangible to share, saying: ‘This is something really serious to look at here.’ It was a piece of guerrilla journalism about Trump and Epstein, and it was seen 20m times.”
The Reveal
It started with the recognizable Windsor Castle logo. “It requires a cylindrical building requires a little bit of mapping,” Stewart states. “First appeared the royal coat of arms. The police are thinking: ‘How pleasant – the royal family,’ and then abruptly a massive image of Jeffrey Epstein materializes. This electric jolt passed through the officers nearby, and they all pile into the hotel.”
A History of Activism
This was not their inaugural action; it wasn’t even their first action targeting Trump. Back in 2018, while working for Greenpeace, Stewart had flown a motorized paraglider near the hotel where the then-president was staying during a visit to Turnberry. The following year, police visited him that any repeat, his safety wasn't assured.
Confrontation with Police
However, the group's creators were not especially worried about arrest. “All my anxiety goes into wanting the action to succeed,” says Oliver Knowles, another co-founder. “Once the police arrive, the message is already out.” The police response was swift, reaching the hotel in under three minutes, highly agitated, he remembers. “They were in jumpsuits and caps. They’d finally found some protesters. They came roaring up the stairs; prepared; tasked to safeguard the guest. Fortunately, no firearms. But they were very adrenalised when they entered the room. I told them: ‘Let’s keep this really calm.’”
Stalling a large number of police officers for six minutes. The fact that they didn’t know under what law to make arrests. Upon finally entering the room, “one officer started reading a section of the Town and Country Planning Act, which another officer asked him to stop because it wasn’t right.” Knowles and three additional team members were subsequently detained for malicious communications, a law related to harassment. “The law is precise: it’s designed to deal with a really concerning offence. To throw it at a piece of journalism, projected on to a wall, in defense of the reputation of the president, seemed contrary to the intent of the legislation,” Stewart says archly. While the others were detained, he melted into the crowd, 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 were in the cells at Maidenhead police station, officers came in and arrested them again, now for public nuisance, having decided a stronger charge. During interrogation, the sole available interrogators belonged to the child protection squad – an irony which was not lost on anyone, given the subject matter of the protest involved Jeffrey Epstein. The activists responded to all queries with: “No comment.” A few minutes into the interview, police presented a photo: “They asked, 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 knew the next move: a picture of a large projector, ratchet-strapped to several drawers. Then, the officers struggled to keep a straight face.”
The Outcome
A little more than one month later, every charge was dismissed.
