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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
Massive banners with Trump’s face are adorning some federal buildings
in DC. Democrats are crying foul
By Camila DeChalus, CNN
Updated:
8:00 AM EDT, Sat September 20, 2025
Source: CNN
Democrats on Capitol Hill are raising alarm over large banners with
’s face that can 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
told CNN. “It’s another indication of the march that we’re on
towards authoritarianism in this country.”
The , released by Schiff earlier this week that alleges the
administration is using federal funds for propaganda, found the Trump
administration has spent at 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 around
$6,000.
Schiff’s office, reached by CNN, said it did not have additional
comment beyond the report. The California Democrat is known to have a
with the Trump White House.
But Republican lawmakers argued that similar promotional efforts took
place under the previous Democratic administration – pointing to
taxpayer-funded signage crediting then-President Joe Biden for federal
projects, such as those related to his infrastructure law – 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,” said
Georgia Republican Rep. Barry Loudermilk. “ Why the double
standard?”
The controversy underscores deepening tensions in Washington over the
extent of Trump’s use of executive power. The banners in question
have large portraits of the sitting president with the caption
“American Workers First.”
The White House strongly pushed back 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 said in a statement to CNN.
The Department of Labor confirmed it spent roughly $6,000 on the
banners and noted that they were created in conjunction with Labor Day
and the department’s America250 celebrations.
The departments of agriculture and health and human services did not
immediately respond to CNN’s requests for comment.
“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 said in a statement.
Still, some Democratic lawmakers argued that no president, despite
their party, should use taxpayer money for such displays moving
forward.
“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
said. “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 government affairs manager 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 told CNN.
Last year, Sen. Joni Ernst, an Iowa Republican, raised similar concerns
about the use of taxpayer money for political messaging under the Biden
administration. In a June 2024 letter to the White House Office of
Management and Budget, she criticized the administration for
encouraging federal agencies to post signage crediting “President Joe
Biden” for publicly funded projects.
“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 at the time.
Rep. Dusty Johnson of South Dakota pointed to pictures of the president
and vice president often 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 asked. “No, yeah,
I haven’t seen the banner.”
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