Democrats on Capitol Hill are elevating alarm over giant banners with President Donald Trump’s face that may be seen on three federal buildings, claiming they carry authoritarian undertones in the wake of a report from California Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff.
“When I saw the banners hanging from federal office buildings last week, it reminded me of [the] Communist Party in China and banners hanging from federal offices—just totally inappropriate and a step towards authoritarianism,” Democratic Rep. Hank Johnson from Georgia advised NCS. “It’s another indication of the march that we’re on towards authoritarianism in this country.”
The report, launched by Schiff earlier this week that alleges the administration is utilizing federal funds for propaganda, discovered the Trump administration has spent at the very least $50,000 in taxpayer funds to create the banners, with the Department of Agriculture spending $16,400, Health and Human Services $33,726, and the Department of Labor round $6,000.
Schiff’s workplace, reached by NCS, mentioned it didn’t have further remark past the report. The California Democrat is understood to have a particularly frosty relationship with the Trump White House.
But Republican lawmakers argued that related promotional efforts came about beneath the earlier Democratic administration – pointing to taxpayer-funded signage crediting then-President Joe Biden for federal tasks, reminiscent of these associated to his infrastructure legislation – and questioned why their colleagues didn’t raise concern then.
“Did they raise concerns when they were putting banners and stuff up when they were in the White House? I don’t recall that,” mentioned Georgia Republican Rep. Barry Loudermilk. “ Why the double standard?”
The controversy underscores deepening tensions in Washington over the extent of Trump’s use of govt energy. The banners in query have giant portraits of the sitting president with the caption “American Workers First.”
The White House strongly pushed again on Schiff’s report, calling the senator a “serial liar.”
“You should ask Pencil Neck why he’s trying to draw comparisons between President Trump and fascist leaders when this is the exact same rhetoric that radicalizes the left’s supporters to commit acts of violence against conservatives,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson mentioned in an announcement to NCS.
The Department of Labor confirmed it spent roughly $6,000 on the banners and famous that they had been created in conjunction with Labor Day and the division’s America250 celebrations.
The departments of agriculture and well being and human companies didn’t instantly reply to NCS’s requests for remark.
“The banners were originally displayed for Labor Day. After tremendous positive response, we’re reinforcing the material at no charge to taxpayers, so our big, beautiful banners can securely stay up in celebration of America’s 250th birthday,” Labor Department spokesperson Courtney Parella mentioned in an announcement.
Still, some Democratic lawmakers argued that no president, regardless of their occasion, ought to use taxpayer cash for such shows shifting ahead.
“There shouldn’t be any money used for the president, really, any president, to go put their big picture up on the side of a building for any kind of political aggrandizement,” Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas mentioned. “Some of that stuff, it looks like we’re living in North Korea, the way they’re using money to put his big picture up. So yes, there should be more oversight, and it shouldn’t just apply to him. It should apply to future presidents.”
Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, the federal government affairs supervisor at Project On Government Oversight, a nonpartisan ethics group, echoed the sentiment.
“I would hope that Congress would be a bit more kind of proactive and robust in terms of keeping tabs on what the executive branch and … what they’re doing with money and what they’re spending money on,” Hedtler-Gaudette advised NCS.
Last 12 months, Sen. Joni Ernst, an Iowa Republican, raised related considerations in regards to the use of taxpayer cash for political messaging beneath the Biden administration. In a June 2024 letter to the White House Office of Management and Budget, she criticized the administration for encouraging federal businesses to publish signage crediting “President Joe Biden” for publicly funded tasks.
“For years I’ve been attempting to show Americans how Washington spends their hard-earned tax dollars by requiring a price tag displaying the cost be placed on public documents related to every government-funded project. This allows Americans to see the return on their tax dollars and judge the value of every expenditure for themselves,” Ernst wrote in the letter on the time.
Rep. Dusty Johnson of South Dakota pointed to photos of the president and vice chairman usually being displayed in federal buildings.
“Presumably, during the Biden administration, a picture of Joe Biden hung literally in every single federal building in America. Was that political? Did Mr. Schiff opine on that?” Johnson requested. “No, yeah, I haven’t seen the banner.”