Here’s How Much Money Trump Is Wasting on Giant Banners of His Face

The Trump administration has spent at least $56,000 so far on Orwellian banners displayed on government buildings, according to a report from Democratic Senator Adam Schiff published by MeidasTouch Network.

In August, Trump’s Department of Labor unfurled a giant banner on its headquarters’ facade, featuring the words “American Workers First” and Trump’s glowering second inaugural portrait. Alongside the president’s banner was one depicting Theodore Roosevelt with the same motto. In the spring, Trump’s visage similarly appeared on a banner beside one of Abraham Lincoln on the Department of Agriculture’s building.

An oversight report by Schiff reveals that the Department of Health and Human Services also plans to exhibit political banners on its exterior. The Trump administration has awarded a contract for two “Make America Healthy Again Building Banners” at HHS headquarters, which are yet to be unveiled. Per contracting documents, the signs are to measure 11 feet by 88 feet and be made to last “preferably” the length of Trump’s term. While they will feature “different artwork,” the images are not detailed in the report—but if history is any indication, one of them can be expected to depict the president scowling.

Between all three reported banner orders, the Trump administration has dished out about $56,000 in taxpayer money. The USDA banners cost $16,400, the HHS banners $33,726, and the Labor Department banners about $6,000—though, Schiff notes, the full cost is “yet to be determined.”

According to Schiff, the banners could run afoul of federal appropriations laws that bar the spending of funds for “publicity or propaganda purposes.” Either way, as the senator notes, they 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.”

White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller just made it his mission to go after liberal nonprofits.

Speaking with Vice President JD Vance Monday during a tribute to Charlie Kirk on the far-right firebrand’s eponymous show, Miller said that he intended to “channel all the anger that we have” against the left, claiming that leftist groups and nonprofits had created “terrorist networks” that led to Kirk’s murder.

“The last message that Charlie sent me … was that we needed to have an organized strategy to go after the left-leaning organizations that are promoting violence in this country,” Miller told Vance, celebrating what he described as focused anger. “I will write those words onto my heart and I will carry them out.”

Miller elaborated that, per his belief, these supposed terrorist organizations had produced “organized doxing campaigns” and “organized cells” that facilitated violence.

“It is a vast domestic terror movement,” Miller said. “With God as my witness, we are going to use every resource we have at the Department of Justice, Homeland Security, and throughout this government to identify, disrupt, dismantle, and destroy these networks and make America safe again for the American people.

“It will happen, and we will do it in Charlie’s name,” Miller added.

Kirk was shot dead during a speaking engagement at Utah Valley University Wednesday. He was struck by a single bullet to the neck, pulverizing his carotid artery.

But details surrounding Kirk’s murder—and his suspected killer—don’t point to the ideological left, as Miller would apparently like people to believe. Instead, the suspect in custody, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, came from a MAGA family, his grandmother told The Daily Beast. Robinson, who hailed from a conservative Mormon family in southwestern Utah, was registered as a nonpartisan voter, according to public records.

Etchings found on bullet casings allegedly belonging to Robinson similarly did not paint the suspect as a liberal. Instead, the writings made references to video games such as Helldivers 2, and echoed 4chan copypastas.

Hardline MAGA Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene called for a “national divorce,” in a psychotic, inaccuracy-laden post about “the left” and Charlie Kirk. 

“There is nothing left to talk about with the left. They hate us. They assassinated our nice guy who actually talked to them peacefully debating ideas. Then millions on the left celebrated and made clear they want all of us dead,” Taylor Greene wrote on X on Monday. “To be honest, I want a peaceful national divorce. Our country is too far gone and too far divided, and it’s no longer safe for any of us. What will come from Charlie Kirk being martyred is already happening. It is a spiritual revival building the kingdom for Christ.” 

https://x.com/RepMTG/status/1967550436337996189

There’s been a concerted effort on the right to cast Kirk’s shooting as some coordinated leftist attack. Some like Elon Musk are even calling it the work of a transgender terrorist cell. Multiple figures both in and out of government have called for “war” against this anonymous idea they have of the left, when in reality the suspect’s politics are enigmatic at best. Still, they are using Kirk’s assassination to further their own far-right agendas. MTG is doing the exact same, as she is literally calling for a civil dissolution of the United States over this, all while evoking the name of Jesus.   

“Democrats are hardened in their beliefs and will flip the switch back as soon as they have power. And, if you are expecting Republicans to fight against evil, with the power they currently possess, and end this once and for all, you are going to be extremely disappointed. This week Congress will be voting on another CR—Biden’s budget that FUNDS TRANSGENDER POLICIES, NOT our own Trump policy budget that funds what you voted for,” Taylor Greene continued. “Government is not answer, God is. Turn your full faith and trust to our Almighty God and our Savior Jesus. Tighten your circle around your family and protect them at all times. I will pray for the left, but personally I want nothing to do with them.”

While this is far from MTG’s most troubling post, the greater trend it highlights is indeed worrisome. The right’s attempt to whitewash Kirk’s legacy, declare war on the ambiguous “left” before any motive has been confirmed, and act as if political violence (or jokes about it) is unique to the left is an insult to the intelligence of their own supporters. 

Republicans are calling to utilize government resources to memorialize Charlie Kirk, the MAGA activist and provocateur who was fatally shot last week at a university speaking engagement in Utah.

On Monday, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson announced a vigil will take place in the evening in the Capitol Building’s National Statuary Hall. At the event, which comes on the heels of a prayer vigil at the Kennedy Center Sunday, Johnson will deliver remarks and lead prayers.

The vigil is just the latest effort by Republicans to canonize Kirk.

Last week, MAGA Representative Nancy Mace said she was introducing a resolution to authorize Kirk to be “lain in honor” at the Capitol Rotunda. The rare distinction, in which the remains of distinguished private citizens are placed in the Capitol for public viewing, was established in 1998—similar to the long-standing tradition of “lying in state,” which is reserved for government officials and military leaders.

If Mace has her way, Kirk would join a small group of individuals to have lain in honor at the Capitol: two Medal of Honor recipients, four Capitol police officers, civil rights leader Rosa Parks, and minister Billy Graham, a close adviser to several U.S. presidents.

Others are even pushing for a statue of Kirk to be erected in the Capitol. In a draft letter to Johnson last week, GOP Representative Anna Paulina Luna said a statue would serve as a “permanent testament” to Kirk’s “life’s work, his courage, and his sacrifice.” Supporting the effort, Republican Representative Andrew Clyde told a NOTUS reporter, “We have a statue of [Martin Luther King Jr.] in the Capitol, don’t we?”

Notably, part of Kirk’s life’s work was distorting the history of the Civil Rights Movement. He attacked King as an “awful” person and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as a “huge mistake.”

White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller and other Republicans have wasted no time fashioning the late Charlie Kirk into a prop from their political agendas.

During an angry rant on Fox News Friday, Miller revealed that Kirk’s final missive to him was a directive to use the full force of government to “dismantle” the left.

“The last message that Charlie Kirk gave to me before he joined his creator in Heaven was he said that we have to dismantle and take on the radical left organizations in this country that are fomenting violence,” Miller fumed. “That was the last message that he sent me before that assassin stole him from all of us.”

Miller said he was open to leveling any charges against left-wing organizations responsible for inciting riots, doxing, committing violence, and “trying to inspire terrorism.” It’s worth noting that the alleged assassin has not been linked to any such organization, and in the wake of Kirk’s death, right-wing activists have undertaken a massive doxing campaign against anyone they feel belittled the shooting.

Miller also threatened to exile the “domestic terrorists in this country spreading this evil hate,” warning that law enforcement would be used to “find you, will be used to take away your money, take away your power, and if you’ve broken the law, take away your freedom.”

It’s certainly not impossible that Kirk fully supported Miller’s long-standing goal of destroying left-wing organizations; it’s just a little convenient that the late right-wing activist’s final message rubber-stamped Miller’s dreams of a law enforcement crackdown against the left.

Miller’s latest threat comes as Donald Trump has moved to defend right-wing radicals and demonize the left, and MAGA declared “war” before they even knew who had fired the shot.

As fate would have it, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem also said Kirk’s final message to her was cheering on her attacks against state and local-level Democrats, as she works to expand immigration law enforcement operations in major cities.

“The last thing Charlie had texted me about—about a day or two before he passed away—was about those mayors and governors,” Noem said Sunday on Fox News. “That he wanted them to be held accountable for how dangerous they were making the situation for their people that had to live in those cities.”

Noem has already been on the warpath against the leaders of sanctuary cities, including Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and California Governor Gavin Newsom, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, and New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

Arizona Republican Kari Lake and several Republican pundits also attempted to use Kirk’s death to further their political attacks against higher education—too bad the alleged shooter only attended college for one semester.