A giant replica of a birthday message allegedly written by U.S. President Donald Trump in 2003 to late convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein appeared on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
The card first became public in September after it was released by the Democratic Party. This came after Trump threatened to sue the Wall Street Journal in July for reporting Trump had produced the suggestive letter and drawing as part of an album created by Ghislaine Maxell for Epstein’s 50th birthday in 2003.
The 10-foot-tall birthday card was displayed across from the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 19 and read, “Happy birthday to a ‘terrific guy!’” on one side.
On the other side of the card was the alleged message Trump reportedly sent Epstein. The text was framed by a hand-drawn outline of what appears to be a torso of a woman with a message that says, “We have certain things in common, Jeffrey.”
“A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday—and may every day be another wonderful secret,” the letter read, signed at the bottom by Trump.
Trump has denied having anything to do with it and called the creations “a fake thing,” adding that he “never wrote a picture in my life. I don’t draw pictures of women.”
The display comes in time for what would have been Epstein’s 73rd birthday on Jan. 20. Epstein died in a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial in 2019 on charges that said he sexually abused and trafficked dozens of underage girls.
Beside the card statue is another statue of stacked boxes with redacted files and a bunch of markers. A plaque reads: “The Secret Handshake invites you to celebrate the birthday of President Donald Trump’s ‘closest friend,’ Jeffrey Epstein, with a larger than life tribute to their intimate correspondence.”
“Feel Free To Sign The Birthday Card With Your Own Message To The Administration,” the plaque adds.
A protest art installation to highlight Jeffrey Epstein’s birthday of Jan. 20, 1953, is photographed on the National Mall, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026, in Washington.
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
People look at a protest art installation to highlight Jeffrey Epstein’s birthday of Jan. 20, 1953, on the National Mall, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026, in Washington.
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
The birthday card replica comes from a group that identifies itself as “The Secret Handshake.”
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In a statement to CBS affiliate WUSA9, the group claims that the installation appeared overnight on Jan. 18 and is permitted until Friday, Jan. 23.
“Kudos to these Trump Deranged Liberals for constantly inventing new ways to light Democrat donor money on fire by spreading fake news,” White House deputy press secretary Abigail Jackson told the Daily Beast in a comment about the replica.
In September, The Secret Handshake group unveiled a statue of Trump and Epstein holding hands on the National Mall.
The bronze sculpture, titled “Best Friends Forever,” first appeared on Sept. 23 on the National Mall in Washington but was removed the following day.
The temporary installation, which depicted the men holding hands as they frolicked, smiled and stared into each other’s eyes, reappeared on Oct. 2 amid a government shutdown.
“We celebrate the long-lasting bond between President Donald J. Trump and his ‘closest friend,’ Jeffrey Epstein,” a plaque at the foot of the installation read.
A cyclist stops to take photos of a statue featuring President Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein dancing, titled “In Honor of Friendship Month,” that appeared on the east end of the National Mall in Washington on Tuesday morning, September 23, 2025.
Bill Clark/ Getty Images
Carved separately were quotes from the cryptic birthday note.
White House deputy press secretary Jackson dismissed the installation at the time in a statement to The Hill.
“Liberals are free to waste their money however they see fit — but it’s not news that Epstein knew Donald Trump, because Donald Trump kicked Epstein out of his club for being a creep,” she said at the time.
“Democrats, the media, and the organization that’s wasting their money on this statue knew about Epstein and his victims for years and did nothing to help them while President Trump was calling for transparency, and is now delivering on it with thousands of pages of documents.”
Where are the Epstein Files?
The new statue’s arrival comes amid mounting pressure on the Trump administration to release all Epstein-related files, after the Justice Department missed a Dec. 19 deadline set by the Epstein Files Transparency Act. The law, signed on Nov. 19, required the department to make records public within 30 days.
It is now more than a month past the deadline.
The Justice Department said earlier in January that it had released 12,285 documents, with more than 2 million documents still being reviewed. They have said the files’ release was slowed by redactions required to protect the identities of abuse victims.
In a court filing dated Jan. 15, the Justice Department acknowledged that “millions” of pages of materials were outstanding.
“To date, the Department has employed over five hundred reviewers to review and redact millions of pages of materials from the investigations into Epstein and his convicted co-conspirator,” the filing said.
The filing did not share a total number of files that remain outstanding or reveal when they would be made public.
The congressional co-sponsors of legislation that forced the public release of investigative documents in the sex trafficking probe of Epstein and Maxwell asked a New York judge in a letter to appoint a neutral expert to oversee release of the materials. The letter, dated Jan. 8, was delivered to the judge on Jan. 12.
U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, and Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, told U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer they had “urgent and grave concerns” that the Justice Department has failed to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which required the files to be released in December.
They said they believed “criminal violations have taken place” in the release process.
In their letter, Khanna and Massie wrote that the Department of Justice’s release of 12,000 documents out of more than 2 million documents being reviewed was a “flagrant violation” of the law’s release requirements and had caused “serious trauma to survivors.”
“Put simply, the DOJ cannot be trusted with making mandatory disclosures under the Act,” the congressmen said as they asked for the appointment of an independent monitor to ensure all documents and electronically stored information are immediately made public.
They also recommended that a court-appointed monitor be given authority to notify and prepare reports about the true nature and extent of the document production and whether improper redactions or conduct have taken place.
By Jan. 16, Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor said that Engelmayer lacks the authority to appoint a neutral expert to oversee the public release of documents.
Engelmayer was told in a letter signed by U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton that he must reject the request by the congressional cosponsors of the Epstein Files Transparency Act to appoint a neutral expert.
Clayton said Khanna and Massie do not have standing with the court that would allow them to seek the “extraordinary” relief of the appointment of a special master and independent monitor.
Engelmayer “lacks the authority” to grant such a request, he said, particularly because the congressional representatives who made the request are not parties to the criminal case that led to Maxwell’s December 2021 sex trafficking conviction and subsequent 20-year prison sentence for recruiting girls and women for Epstein to abuse and aiding the abuse.
Khanna said Clayton’s response “misconstrued” the intent of their request.
“We are informing the Court of serious misconduct by the Department of Justice that requires a remedy, one we believe this Court has the authority to provide, and which victims themselves have requested,” Khanna said in a statement.
“Our purpose is to ensure that DOJ complies with its representations to the Court and with its legal obligations under our law,” he added.
The Justice Department expects to update the court “again shortly” regarding its progress in turning over documents from the Epstein and Maxwell investigative files, Clayton said in the letter.
—With files from Global News’ Ariel Rabinovitch, Rachel Goodman and The Associated Press
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