It’s raining banners in Washington, D.C., at the moment, quite literally. The pro-Trump propaganda has been taken to the next level with in-your-face banners of the U.S. President. In the late hours of September 20, several buildings in the city were draped with giant banners, an offbeat and newly authoritarian form of propaganda, which has left many people in disbelief. Buzz about historical evidence of such oversized banners has grabbed all the attention, with the city’s landscapes being covered quite literally with Trump faces.
Several important buildings in the capital city, including the Departments of Agriculture, Labor, Health, and Human Services, as well as other federal buildings, woke up to life-size portraits of Donald Trump within banners installed on the exteriors. According to a new oversight report from the office of Democratic Senator Adam Schiff, these banners have cost taxpayers approximately $50,000. It has also conveniently become a reminder of displaying over-authoritativeness, which was symbolic of tyrants like Mussolini, Saddam Hussein, and Kim Jong Un.
Giant banners of Donald Trump are going up around Washington DC. Welcome to North Korea, folks. pic.twitter.com/ScJy71TRdr
— Scott (@the_real_scott) May 15, 2025
The report from the Democratic front further confirmed the apprehensions of Trump bringing down a complete dictator role by getting installed banners of such kind. Schiff, in his report, said, “Dictators throughout history have used oversized portraits to convey their power and intimidate their subjects. In addition to the waste of taxpayer funds, the Trump Administration’s propaganda banners prompt troubling questions about whether the Trump Administration is deliberately modeling itself after authoritarian regimes.”
Speaking about the banners themselves, they were constructed four months in advance, when three federal departments agreed to hang them outside their respective buildings. While two of these were huge-sized Trump portraits, the third one was an 88-foot-long signboard that promoted Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” slogan.
US government buildings now appear to be putting up giant banners of Donald Trump’s face, echoing authoritarian dictatorships. pic.twitter.com/rKMbsTAYPt
— People For the American Way (@peoplefor) May 14, 2025
The Democratic office called it an attempt to glorify and pay tribute to the sitting U.S. president. This task has a legal prohibition on using federal funds for self-propaganda purposes. The report added, “In addition to wasting taxpayer funds, these banners mimic self-aggrandizing banners, billboards, and other propaganda promoted by dictators abroad. They also serve as a stark visual manifestation of measures President Trump and his administration are taking to consolidate power and control that are antithetical to American democracy.”
This is not the first time that Trump’s life-size face banners have made extravagant use of public funds for propaganda. Earlier, the Department of Agriculture allocated up to $16,400 for Trump and Abraham Lincoln’s banners, which were installed publicly in May but were later removed. Moreover, the Department of Labor allegedly spent $6000 on two equivalent banners marking the occasion for Labor Day. These were not put down, unlike the other, citing a ‘tremendously positive response’ from the people at large.
Spokespersons from the Democratic Party did not mince their words before calling out this propaganda as essentially being the violations of federal law at the very basis. They stated, “The current appropriations law, extended by a Continuing Resolution, includes language explicitly barring the spending of funds for propaganda in two separate sections”-referring to sections 715 and 718, respectively.
