“In the span of four months, three federal departments have contracted to create enormous political banners. Two contracts were for large banners of Donald Trump’s portrait that were hung outside the Departments of Agriculture and Labor. A third previously undiscovered federal solicitation is for 88-foot signs to be hung on the Department of Health and Human Services to promote Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr’s presidential campaign slogan ‘Make America Healthy Again.’ A review of contracting documents indicates that the signs are being made at the public’s expense, with the first three signs costing at least $50,000 in taxpayer funds and the full cost yet to be determined.”

“This pattern of contracts suggests an unprecedented and coordinated effort by the Executive Branch to use federal funds to glorify and pay tribute to a sitting US President and his political agenda, despite a longstanding legal prohibition against the use of federal funds for propaganda and self-aggrandizement purposes. 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 aretaking to consolidate power and control that are antithetical to American democracy. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Trump Administration is spending taxpayer funds on political banners hung on federal office buildings in the style of totalitarian dictators,” says the intro to a new report by California Senator Adam Schiff, pointing to a 1951 law prohibiting such expenditures on propaganda.