The Trump administration has committed an additional $153,000 in taxpayer funds to putting up giant banners of the president’s face on government buildings, violating federal laws against propaganda, according to a Democratic senator.
Sen. Adam Schiff of California this week said he uncovered evidence of two more contracts for Trump banners, one for $39,000 on behalf of the Department of Interior, and another for $114,020 on behalf of the Federal Aviation Administration.
The funds went to a Maryland-based firm called Grafik Industries, Ltd., according to Schiff. A Trump banner went up in front of the Interior Department last month, and the FAA contract details work lasting through 2027.
“The Trump administration is spending hundreds of thousands of your tax dollars to glorify and pay tribute to a sitting U.S. President and his political agenda,” Schiff wrote in a statement on Monday. “Not only is this a terrible waste of Americans’ hard-earned money, it is clearly against the law. Congress has long outlawed spending tax dollars on propaganda and self-aggrandizement and an eight-story high Donald Trump head certainly qualifies as propaganda.”
The Independent has contacted the White House, Interior Department, FAA and Grafik Industries for comment.
The Trump administration has hung huge banners featuring the president’s face across major agency buildings around the capital, including at the Departments of Agriculture, Labor and Justice.
Those banners, plus the ones detailed by Schiff, cost more than $175,000 in federal funds to produce, according to news reports and federal records detailing their contracts.
Critics argue the banners are highly inappropriate and reminiscent of imagery from authoritarian regimes such as North Korea with cults of personality around their leaders.
The administration argues the banners celebrate the president’s achievements and are fitting additions to America’s 250th anniversary celebrations.
Many of the president’s Washington renovation projects, ranging from his new White House ballroom to his Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool revamp, have faced criticism for their high cost and use of taxpayer funds. The White House has defended this spending as necessary to rapidly carry out the anniversary-themed renovations.
Last year, a Trump-aligned group, Freedom 250, was founded to plan festivities for the anniversary, rivaling the long-standing, similarly named congressional group for the same purpose, America 250.
The newer Trump-aligned effort has reportedly generated friction with the original one because it has competed for attention and budgeting, while causing confusion for the public. Democrats have suggested that Freedom 250 conducted fraud against donors who thought they were giving to America 250, claims Freedom 250 has called a “partisan smear.”
The Freedom 250 effort has raised at least $9,000,000, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis.
Corporations that do business with the government have donated heavily to the effort, such as defense contractors and tech firm Palantir.
Another major donor is the UFC, the fighting league which partnered with the Trump administration to host an America 250th anniversary-themed bout on the White House lawn.
The full extent of Freedom 250’s fundraising isn’t known because much private donor info is not disclosed.
Trump, a former reality TV host known for licensing his name to products ranging from airlines to steaks, has shown a zeal for naming things after himself while in office.
He and his allies pushed to add his name to the Kennedy Center, and the administration has rolled out a Trump savings account, visa and $1 coin.
His family businesses, meanwhile, have attached the Trump name to a variety of cryptocurrency offerings, which made the president more than $1 billion last year.
