What Happened Next: The Night The Activist Group Projected Images of Trump and Epstein on to Windsor Castle

When the announcement was made for Donald Trump’s second state visit, including a royal dinner at Windsor on 17 September 2025, the protest group known as Led By Donkeys felt compelled not to let it pass without a statement. The gesture of rolling out the red carpet was viewed as particularly craven. Their subsequent art-activist event proceeded with precision.

A Provocative Film

The group produced a short documentary exploring the connections with the late financier Jeffrey Epstein. It concluded: “The president of the United States was a longstanding associate of America’s most notorious child sex trafficker. He’s alleged to be referenced, repeatedly, in documents from the criminal probe into Epstein … And now that very man, Donald Trump, is sleeping here within Windsor Castle.” (In response, Trump maintains he ended his friendship with Epstein years before Epstein’s first arrest and has consistently denied all allegations concerning Epstein.)

The Setup

The group had secured rooms in the adjacent Harte and Garter hotel, which boast “castle view” and, even more helpfully, superior castle views, according to group founder, Ben Stewart. Their equipment included a powerful 32,000-lumen projector. For audio, Stewart positioned a wireless speaker, concealed inside a cereal box, atop a garbage can outside.

The world’s media had gathered, their gaze fixed at the castle, growing restless awaiting Trump's arrival. The film, however, spread rapidly everywhere. “While photographs of Epstein and Trump went viral online,” Stewart notes, “I doubt that convinces people of anything – it just makes Trump uncomfortable. The film we made gives people something tangible to share, saying: ‘There’s something really serious to examine here.’ We took an act of activist journalism about Trump and Epstein, and it was viewed by millions.”

The Reveal

It started with the recognizable Windsor Castle logo. “Projecting onto the castle's round tower needs some technical calibration,” Stewart explains. “First appeared the royal coat of arms. Officers likely thought: ‘How pleasant – the royal family,’ and suddenly a great big picture of Jeffrey Epstein appears. A wave of shock passed through the police in fluorescent jackets nearby, and the police all pile into the hotel.”

Not Their First Protest

This was not the group’s first rodeo; nor was it their first action targeting Trump. Back in 2018, while working for Greenpeace, Stewart had flown a motorized paraglider over the resort where the president was staying in Scotland. A year later, police visited him that if he tried again, they couldn’t guarantee.

Confrontation with Police

But, the group's creators weren't overly concerned about arrest. “My nervous energy is channelled into ensuring the action to succeed,” says Oliver Knowles, another co-founder. “Once the police make the intervention, the die is cast.” Officers was rapid, arriving in the lobby within three minutes, highly agitated, he remembers. “They were in jumpsuits and baseball caps. They’d finally found some protesters. They came roaring up the stairs; they were briefed; they were on a mission to protect the president. Thankfully, no firearms. But they were extremely tense when they entered the room. I told them: ‘We should keep this really calm.’”

Delaying multiple police officers is a long time. The fact that officers were unsure which law to make arrests. When they finally entered the room, “a policeman started reading a clause of the Town and Country Planning Act, before another told him to stop as it was incorrect.” Knowles and three additional team members were subsequently detained for malicious communications, a stalking law. “and it’s very specific: its purpose is to deal with a serious offence. To throw it at an act of journalism, projected on to a wall, to protect the reputation of the president, seemed contrary to the intent of the legislation,” Stewart says archly. While the others were detained, he slipped away, shortly thereafter was on a train out of Windsor, calling lawyers.

An Ironic Interrogation

Later that night, as the detainees sat in cells at Maidenhead police station, officers came in and re-arrested them, now for public nuisance, having decided more likely to succeed. When they came to be questioned, the only officers available belonged to the child protection squad – an irony that was not lost on anyone, given the subject matter of the protest involved alleged sex offender. The activists just answered all queries with: “No comment.” Shortly after starting the interview, police presented a photograph: “‘Mr Knowles, did you take the drawer from this bedside table?’ ‘No comment.’ ‘Sir, do you know anybody else who may have had cause to take the drawer?’ ‘No comment.’ I knew the next move: a picture of a giant projector, ratchet-strapped to four drawers. At that point, the officers were finding it hard to keep a straight face.”

The Outcome

Just over one month later, every charge was dismissed.