What Happened Next: The Evening 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 Windsor Castle banquet on 17 September 2025, the activist collective known as Led By Donkeys was determined not to let it pass unprotested. The gesture of rolling out the red carpet seemed particularly craven. Their subsequent art-activist event unfolded like clockwork.

A Deliberate Message

The group produced a short documentary exploring the connections 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 documents from the criminal probe into Epstein … And now that very man, Donald Trump, is a guest within Windsor Castle.” (In response, Trump maintains he fell out with Epstein long prior to Epstein’s initial legal troubles and repeatedly refuted any wrongdoing concerning Epstein.)

The Setup

The group had booked rooms in the adjacent Harte and Garter hotel, rooms advertised with views of the castle and, even more helpfully, superior castle views, said group founder, Ben Stewart. They utilized a powerful 32,000-lumen projector. To broadcast sound, Stewart placed a Bluetooth speaker, concealed inside a cereal box, on top of a public rubbish bin outside.

The world’s media was assembled, staring at the castle, becoming bored as Trump was delayed. The film, however, spread rapidly everywhere. “While the still pictures of Epstein and Trump spread like wildfire online,” Stewart says, “I doubt that persuades anyone of anything – it simply makes Trump uneasy. The film we made gives people something tangible to share, implying: ‘This is something really serious to look at here.’ It was a piece of guerrilla journalism about Trump and Epstein, and it was viewed 20m times.”

The Reveal

The film began with the recognizable Windsor Castle logo. “It requires a cylindrical building needs some technical calibration,” Stewart explains. “So there’s this royal crest. Officers are thinking: ‘How pleasant – the royal family,’ and then abruptly a great big picture of Jeffrey Epstein appears. A wave of shock passed through the officers nearby, and they all pile into the hotel.”

A History of Activism

It wasn't the group’s first rodeo; it wasn’t even their first effort against Trump. Back in 2018, during his time with Greenpeace, Stewart piloted a paraglider near the resort where the then-president was staying during a visit to Turnberry. The following year, police visited him that if he tried again, they couldn’t guarantee.

Confrontation with Police

But, the activists were not especially worried about detainment. “All my anxiety is channelled into ensuring the action to succeed,” notes Oliver Knowles, another co-founder. “Once the police make the intervention, the die is cast.” The police response was rapid, arriving in the lobby in under three minutes, highly agitated, he remembers. “Wearing jumpsuits and caps. They had located the culprits. They came roaring up the stairs; prepared; tasked to safeguard the guest. Thankfully, no guns. But they were extremely tense upon entering the room. I told them: ‘Let’s keep this calm.’”

Delaying a large number of police officers is a long time. The fact that officers were unsure which law to make arrests. Upon finally entering the room, “one officer began reciting a section of the Town and Country Planning Act, before another asked him to stop because it wasn’t right.” Knowles and three additional activists were subsequently detained for malicious communications, a law related to harassment. “and it’s very specific: it’s designed to deal with a really concerning offence. To throw it at an act of journalism, projected on to a wall, to protect the reputation of the president, seemed against the spirit of the legislation,” Stewart remarks pointedly. As his colleagues were arrested, he slipped away, then soon after was on a train out of Windsor, contacting legal counsel.

An Ironic Interrogation

Some time in the middle of the night, while the activists were in the cells at Maidenhead police station, officers came in and arrested them again, this time for causing a public nuisance, having decided more likely to succeed. When they came to be questioned, the only officers available were from the child protection squad – an irony which was not lost on anyone, given the subject matter of the protest involved alleged sex offender. Knowles and his associates just answered every question with: “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 anybody else who may have had reason to remove the drawer?’ ‘No comment.’ I knew the next move: a picture of a giant projector, ratchet-strapped to four drawers. Then, the detectives were finding it hard to keep a straight face.”

The Final Result

A little more than a month later, all charges was dismissed.