Drei Meter Erinnerung – Trumps Epstein-Gruß steht plötzlich mitten in Washington

Overnight, something appeared that cannot simply be overlooked in this city. On the National Mall, just a few steps from the Capitol, a three-meter-tall version of the birthday card that Donald Trump once sent to Jeffrey Epstein has been standing since Sunday. No reconstruction, no allusion, but a monumental enlargement of a document that has long been part of the public debate.

The installation was placed exactly one day before Epstein’s birthday. It is authorized and may remain until Friday, January 23. Its location is deliberately chosen: on 3rd Street West, between Madison Drive and Jefferson Drive, with an unobstructed view of the power center of the United States. Anyone passing by cannot avoid it. You either walk past it or stop. The work is accompanied by an invitation that makes it even more uncomfortable. Visitors are invited to sign the card themselves and leave their own messages to the administration. An object thus becomes a place. A piece of paper becomes a collective record of memory.

Behind the action are activists from The Secret Handshake, who have previously struck political nerves with public art. Last time, Trump had a work destroyed. Accordingly, an unspoken question hangs over the installation: how long it will be allowed to stand this time. The hope of the initiators is clear, the experience sobering. The content of the card itself is no secret. Trump described Epstein in it as a terrific guy and a good friend. These words are documented, they were never convincingly relativized, never credibly contextualized. In enlargement, they lose every excuse. What was once treated as a footnote now stands life-size in public space.

That this is happening directly across from the Capitol is no coincidence. The Mall is not a park, it is a political resonance chamber. This is where memory, accusation, and dissent take shape. The installation joins this tradition without slogans, without loudspeakers, solely through sheer presence. Whether the work remains standing until Friday is uncertain. Whether it will be damaged or removed is also unclear. Only one thing is certain. For a moment, what many would prefer to repress cannot be explained away. It stands there. Large. Legible. And signable.

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