The Unfolding Events: The Night The Activist Group Beamed Pictures Featuring Trump and Epstein on to Windsor Castle
When the announcement was made for Donald Trump’s upcoming official trip, complete with a royal dinner at Windsor on September 17th, 2025, the activist collective Led By Donkeys felt compelled not to let it pass without a statement. The gesture of offering a lavish welcome was viewed as particularly craven. Their next creative protest unfolded like clockwork.
A Deliberate Message
The group produced a short documentary detailing Donald Trump’s relationship with notorious figure Jeffrey Epstein. It concluded: “The president of the United States is alleged to have been a long-time close friend of America’s most notorious child sex trafficker. He’s alleged to be referenced, repeatedly, in documents from the investigation into Epstein … And now that president, Donald Trump, is a guest in Windsor Castle.” (For his part, Trump maintains he ended his friendship with Epstein years before Epstein’s first arrest and has consistently denied all allegations in relation to Epstein.)
Preparations and Execution
The group had booked rooms in the nearby Harte and Garter hotel, rooms advertised with views of the castle and, more crucially, “castle view superior”, said a co-founder, Ben Stewart. Their equipment included a powerful 32,000-lumen projector. To broadcast sound, Stewart positioned a wireless speaker, hidden within a box of cereal, atop a garbage can outside.
International press was assembled, staring at the castle, growing restless as Trump was delayed. Their film, gained traction globally. “Although the still pictures of Epstein and Trump spread like wildfire online,” Stewart says, “I’m not sure that convinces people of anything – it simply makes Trump uneasy. The film we made gives people a social object to share, implying: ‘There’s 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 official Windsor Castle logo. “It requires a cylindrical building needs a little bit of mapping,” Stewart explains. “So there’s this royal crest. The police are thinking: ‘How pleasant – a royal tribute,’ and then abruptly a massive image of Jeffrey Epstein materializes. A wave of shock passed through the police in fluorescent jackets around me, and the police all pile into the hotel.”
A History of Activism
This was not the group’s first rodeo; nor was it their first action targeting Trump. 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, officers warned him that if he tried again, his safety wasn't assured.
Confrontation with Police
However, the group's creators were not especially worried about arrest. “All my anxiety goes into ensuring the protest works,” notes Oliver Knowles, a fellow founder. “By the time the police make the intervention, the message is already out.” Officers was rapid, reaching the hotel within three minutes, highly agitated, he remembers. “Wearing jumpsuits and baseball caps. They had located some protesters. They charged up the stairs; they were briefed; tasked to protect the president. Thankfully, no guns. But they were extremely tense upon entering the room. I told them: ‘Let’s keep this really calm.’”
Delaying multiple police officers is a long time. It helped that officers didn’t know under what law to charge anyone. When they finally entered the room, “a policeman 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 other team members were subsequently detained for malicious communication, a stalking law. “The law is precise: its purpose is to address a serious offence. Applying it to an act of journalism, projected on to a wall, in defense of the reputation of the president, seemed against the spirit of the legislation,” Stewart says archly. As his colleagues were arrested, he melted into the crowd, then soon after was on a train out of Windsor, calling lawyers.
A Second Arrest and Questioning
Some time that night, as the detainees were in the cells at Maidenhead police station, officers came in and arrested them again, now for causing a public nuisance, having decided more likely to succeed. When they came to be questioned, the sole available interrogators were from the child protection squad – a twist that was palpable, given the focus of the protest concerned Jeffrey Epstein. Knowles and his associates responded to all queries with: “I have no comment.” Shortly after starting the interview, police presented a photograph: “They asked, did you take the drawer from this nightstand?’ ‘No comment.’ ‘Sir, do you know anybody else who may have had cause to take the drawer?’ ‘No comment.’ I anticipated what was coming: a picture of a giant projector, secured to several drawers. At that point, the detectives were finding it hard to maintain their composure.”
The Final Result
A little more than a month later, all charges were dropped.
