President Donald Trump caused outrage earlier this year by hanging giant banners of his face from federal buildings. But according to The New Republic, the saga goes deeper — because these stunts weren't free.
"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," said the report.
Trump affixed these banners of his face to the Labor Department and the Agriculture Department, respectively, alongside portraits of earlier presidents, including Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.
Moreover, there are plans for another such banner at the Department of Health and Human Services, also factored into the total current estimated cost: "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."
Trump's Health Secretary, vaccine conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has come under massive fire for rolling back vaccine approvals and purging experts at the Centers for Disease Control, which even prompted a rebuke from Jerome Adams, Trump's former Surgeon General.
The banners could potentially be illegal, noted Schiff, as federal spending laws prohibit the use of taxpayer money for "publicity or propaganda purposes." But even if Trump has found a loophole making it legal, Schiff said, they are “a stark visual manifestation of measures President Trump and his administration are taking to consolidate power and control that are antithetical to American democracy.”