Workers installed a huge banner featuring President Trump’s face and the words “Make America Safe Again” on the front of Justice Department headquarters in Washington on Thursday, provoking online outrage and comparisons between the administration and authoritarian regimes.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a frequent Trump critic, said the gesture was “beyond parity.”
“How many dictatorship-style monuments, building name changes, and fake awards do Americans have to endure?” he wrote on X, echoing another commentator who said the banner had totalitarian “North Korea vibes.”
Since Trump took office, the president and his allies have renamed the Kennedy Center and the U.S. Institute of Peace to include Trump’s name.
Newsom wasn’t the only Democratic lawmaker sounding off on the banner.
“Americans believe in the rule of law,” Rep. Ted Lieu of California wrote on X. “MAGA Republicans believe in the rule of Trump. November is coming.”
Others argued the image undermined the Justice Department’s position as an independent institution tasked with impartially applying the law.
“Trump is plastering his face on the building that’s supposed to investigate him,” Rep. Jimmy Gomez, also of California, added on X. “There was once a time when a president couldn’t boss the Attorney General around like his own personal lapdog.”
Some commentators and reporters were also critical of the move.
“Could also be Germany 1930s, Soviet Union 1950s,” The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols wrote on X. “Could be many places, but shouldn’t be America.”
Others, like Ken Dilanian, argued the banner was highly ironic given Republicans’ longstanding claims that the Biden administration had politicized the DOJ.
“This is a stunning confirmation of the grim reality, which is that Donald Trump has seized control of the once independent Justice Department and is using it to pursue his political objectives—including trying to punish his perceived enemies,” he wrote on X. “Exactly what his supporters baselessly accused the previous administration of doing.”
Critics of the administration have pointed to federal prosecutions of Trump critics like former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, as well as Democrats who encouraged military members to ignore illegal orders in a video last year, as evidence of this alleged erosion in the separation of powers.
The Trump administration defended the symbol, arguing it was a part of the larger efforts to celebrate the U.S.’s 250th anniversary.
“We are proud at this Department of Justice to celebrate 250 years of our great country and our historic work to make America safe again at President Trump’s direction,” a DOJ spokesperson told The Independent.
Similar banners of the president’s face have previously hung at the Departments of Agriculture and Labor, at a cost of thousands of dollars to taxpayers.
