The Unfolding Events: The Evening Led By Donkeys Beamed Images of Trump and Epstein on to Windsor Castle
When plans were revealed for the former president's upcoming official trip, including a royal dinner at Windsor on September 17th, 2025, the activist collective known as Led By Donkeys was determined to ensure it did not go unprotested. The act of offering a lavish welcome seemed especially servile. Their subsequent art-activist event unfolded like clockwork.
A Deliberate Message
The group produced a short documentary detailing the connections with notorious figure Jeffrey Epstein. It concluded: “The president of the United States is alleged to have been a longstanding associate of America’s most notorious sex offender. He’s alleged to be referenced, numerous times, in documents related to the investigation into Epstein … Now that very man, Donald Trump, is a guest in Windsor Castle.” (In response, Trump has stated he ended his friendship with Epstein years before Epstein’s initial legal troubles and has consistently denied all allegations concerning Epstein.)
Preparations and Execution
The group had booked rooms in the adjacent Harte and Garter hotel, which boast “castle view” and, even more helpfully, “castle view superior”, said group founder, Ben Stewart. Their equipment included a high-lumen projector. To broadcast sound, Stewart positioned a Bluetooth speaker, concealed inside a cereal box, atop a public rubbish bin outside.
The world’s media had gathered, their gaze fixed at the castle, growing restless as Trump was delayed. Their film, gained traction everywhere. “While photographs of Epstein and Trump went viral online,” Stewart notes, “I doubt that convinces people of anything – it simply makes Trump uncomfortable. Our documentary provides viewers 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 seen 20m times.”
The Reveal
The film began with the official 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 suddenly a massive image of Jeffrey Epstein materializes. A wave of shock goes through the police in fluorescent jackets nearby, and the police raced into the hotel.”
A History of Activism
This was not the group’s first rodeo; nor was it their first effort against Trump. In 2018, during his time with Greenpeace, Stewart had flown a paraglider near the hotel where the then-president was staying in Scotland. The following year, police visited him that any repeat, they couldn’t guarantee.
The Arrests
However, the group's creators were not especially worried about arrest. “My nervous energy goes into ensuring the protest works,” says Oliver Knowles, another co-founder. “By the time the police arrive, the die is cast.” The police response was swift, arriving in the lobby within three minutes, “really pumped up”, he remembers. “Wearing jumpsuits and baseball caps. They’d finally found the culprits. They came roaring up the stairs; prepared; tasked to safeguard the guest. Fortunately, no guns. But they were extremely tense upon entering the room. I told them: ‘Let’s keep this calm.’”
Stalling a large number of police officers is a long time. It helped that officers didn’t know which law to charge anyone. Upon finally entering the room, “one officer started reading a section 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 communications, a stalking law. “The law is precise: its purpose is to address 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 remarks pointedly. While the others were detained, he melted into the crowd, shortly thereafter was on a train out of Windsor, contacting legal counsel.
A Second Arrest and Questioning
Later in the middle of the night, while the activists were in the cells at Maidenhead police station, police re-entered and arrested them again, now for causing a public nuisance, deeming it more likely to succeed. When they came to be questioned, the only officers available were from the child protection unit – an irony that was not lost on anyone, given the subject matter of the protest concerned Jeffrey Epstein. Knowles and his associates responded to every question with: “No comment.” Shortly after starting the interview, the officers slid over a photo: “‘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 anticipated what was coming: an image of a giant projector, secured to several drawers. Then, the officers were finding it hard to maintain their composure.”
The Outcome
Just over a month later, every charge were dropped.
