A giant photograph of U.S. President Donald Trump alongside the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was unfurled on the grass outside Windsor Castle ahead of Trump’s state visit to Britain, in a stunt by a protest collective that said it wanted to confront the president with his past association as he arrives for a banquet with King Charles III. Footage posted on Monday shows several people unrolling the blown-up image on a lawn within sight of the royal residence, where the president and First Lady Melania Trump are to be received this week. Police have mounted an extensive security operation in Windsor as the visit gets underway, with additional fencing and cordons visible on the Long Walk, the tree-lined avenue that leads to the castle.
The banner was claimed by the British political campaign group Everyone Hates Elon, which said the installation was funded by donations from the public and timed to coincide with the president’s arrival. In a message accompanying the video, the group wrote: “Trump is coming to the UK to AVOID the EPSTEIN story. Unfortunately the British public just crowdfunded the WORLD’S BIGGEST PHOTO of Donald with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.” The group said the image shows the men together decades ago; previous press photographs show Trump and Epstein socialising in Florida in the late 1990s and 2000. One report said the banner’s source image dated from a 1997 event at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s private club in Palm Beach.
By Tuesday the banner had been taken down, according to local reporting, but the episode added a combustible note to a visit already ringed by a heavy police presence. Thames Valley Police said its firearms unit and specialist search teams have been deployed “in the air, on land and on the waterways” as part of a “comprehensive security operation” for events at Windsor, and told residents to expect visible and behind-the-scenes tactics throughout the presidential stay. A force spokesperson told TIME that planning was calibrated for a “high-level threat” and would “consider every eventuality,” language that followed days of pre-event searching around the castle.
Trump is headed to the UK tomorrow for a state visit and is staying at Windsor Castle….the UK welcoming committee is ready! pic.twitter.com/LsdIq3a596
— Wu Tang is for the Children (@WUTangKids) September 15, 2025
In a parallel action, short videos circulated showing mugs and satirical commemorative plates bearing photos of Trump and Epstein placed around a Windsor Castle gift shop by activists, emblazoned with phrases including “In memory of a terrific guy” and “never forget.” The items, which appeared to be guerrilla placements rather than official stock, were part of the same campaign to press the Epstein issue into public view during the visit. The group has previously used posters and large-format images at London bus shelters near the U.S. Embassy ahead of Trump’s trip.
Trump’s on-again, off-again social ties with Epstein stretch back more than two decades and have been the subject of renewed attention in recent months. In 2002, speaking to New York Magazine, Trump said of Epstein: “I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy… He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.” After Epstein’s 2019 federal arrest on sex-trafficking charges, Trump publicly distanced himself, telling reporters, “I was not a fan,” and saying he had not spoken to Epstein in years. Photographs and video from the 1990s and early 2000s show the two men at the same social events in Palm Beach and New York, while press accounts and court records have detailed both the overlap in their social circles and the subsequent rupture.
The White House has in recent days addressed related questions about material said to connect Trump to Epstein. Last week, officials said they would support a forensic review of a purported birthday note to Epstein bearing Trump’s name that was released by congressional Democrats; a spokesperson said the president denies authoring or signing the document. The letter controversy has accompanied wider calls in Washington for the release of additional material from law-enforcement archives related to Epstein, who died in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial.
The Windsor banner formed one element of broader protests planned around the visit. In London, campaigners have scheduled a march for Wednesday with a rally in Parliament Square, while in Windsor smaller gatherings are expected near the castle perimeter as the presidential motorcade moves to and from official events. Organisers said their actions would be peaceful and focused on policy and ethics concerns, including the president’s past associations. Police warned that anyone attending demonstrations should expect searches, controlled access points and temporary exclusions around ceremonial areas.
Trump is in Britain for an unusually rare second state visit, a ceremonial format that includes a formal welcome and a state banquet hosted by the King at Windsor Castle. The programme also features talks with Prime Minister Keir Starmer and a joint news conference before departure. Security chiefs have concentrated much of the pageantry in and around Windsor rather than in central London, a logistical choice that simplifies protective perimeters for mounted and armed units and reduces opportunities for crowd surges along the Mall or in Whitehall.
In England, in front of Windsor Castle, while waiting for Trump, friendly Englishmen unfurled a photo of Trump and Epstein the size of a tennis court. So it could be seen from the helicopter.
All ok. But… I don’t understand the meaning of this action in the UK. How many… pic.twitter.com/qtNq0ZCFci
— SlavicFreeSpirit (@SlavFreeSpirit) September 16, 2025
Within Windsor itself, preparations have transformed the townscape. A large security fence—described locally as a “ring of steel”—has gone up along parts of the Long Walk, with additional barriers and vehicle checkpoints at approaches to the castle. Search officers have been sweeping public spaces and waterways, and police have advised residents and visitors to expect road closures and diversions while ceremonial movements take place. The force said it aims to keep disruption to a minimum but has asked the public to report anything unusual to officers on duty.
The activist collective behind the Windsor banner has used confrontational visual stunts this summer to target what it describes as the impunity of powerful figures. In London earlier this month the group displayed a large photograph of Trump and Epstein at a bus stop near the U.S. Embassy in Nine Elms; the same image, or a near-identical one, appeared in Windsor for the castle stunt. The collective said its goal around the state visit is to ensure that the topic “haunts” the president wherever he goes in Britain.
Epstein’s crimes and connections have long cast a shadow over parts of Britain’s establishment. Press reporting in the years since his death has chronicled legal and reputational repercussions for figures who knew him, and public-order planners remain alert to how the subject can inflame protest dynamics. Police in Windsor, while not commenting on the specific banner, have emphasised that lawful protest will be facilitated and that officers will intervene where criminal offences are suspected or protected areas are breached. The force has drawn mutual-aid support from other constabularies and is using aerial surveillance and specialist teams to cover the river and castle precincts.
Monday’s unveiling ensured that the Epstein question would frame at least part of the spectacle as the presidential convoy enters a town locked down for ceremony. For the activists, placing the image outside the venue hosting the royal banquet maximised the chance that guests and global media would see it, even if briefly. For security planners, the episode underlined the challenge of managing a rolling event footprint through a dense tourist area without unnecessary confrontation, while maintaining lines that separate official guests, demonstrators and bystanders.
As the visit proceeds, attention will turn to whether further protest actions materialise in Windsor or in London, where larger crowds are expected. Police said additional statements would be issued as necessary, and organisers of the London march have shared routes and timetables that mirror those used during mass protests in 2019. The Windsor banner—conceived as a single, headline-grabbing image—has served its purpose, the activists said, by putting the president’s past association back into public view on the eve of the most formal leg of his British itinerary.
Trump has previously argued that any association with Epstein was superficial, and that he severed ties long before Epstein’s 2019 arrest. In 2019 he told reporters he had “a falling out with him” and had not spoken to him for 15 years; his lawyers have said Epstein was banned from Mar-a-Lago. Publicly available photographs and video, however, show the men appearing together at social occasions in the 1990s and 2000, an archive that protest groups have mined to produce the kind of disruptive imagery displayed in Windsor. The tension between those records and the official denials has been a staple of the political argument that surrounds the subject in both countries and is likely to persist long after the royal banquet concludes.
Windsor’s royal pagesantry will unfold against that backdrop. Inside the castle walls, the courtly formalities—inspections, toasts, and a high-gloss dinner in St George’s Hall—will go ahead as planned; outside, a rolling security cordon will continue to shift across the town as events move through the calendar. What remains of the protest imagery will be cleared away quickly, but the questions it was devised to raise—about who knew Epstein, what they knew, and when—will follow the president through the rest of the British programme and back onto the transatlantic flight home.
