Documents revealed federal agencies spent nearly $1M on Trump-image lobby banners; DOJ — which enforces the Hatch Act — led the spending

On July 24, 2026, documents published by E&E News/Politico revealed that the U.S. Department of Justice spent nearly $1 million on large banners displaying President Donald Trump's face and related headquarters refurbishments. The banners — bearing Trump's likeness — were installed in the lobby of DOJ's Robert F. Kennedy Building. The Departments of Agriculture, Labor, and the Interior also installed Trump-image banners at their respective headquarters buildings, indicating an administration-wide directive rather than a single-agency decision.

The disclosure is notable in part because of the DOJ's specific institutional role: the department is the federal agency responsible for enforcing the Hatch Act, the law that prohibits federal employees and agencies from using government resources for partisan political purposes. Spending official funds on banners prominently displaying the sitting president's face in agency lobbies is, on its face, precisely the category of conduct the Hatch Act is designed to prohibit. An agency openly engaging in the conduct it is charged with policing illustrates the self-exemption pattern the archive documents: the premise that ethics rules apply to the enforcer as fully as to anyone else is what allows those rules to function.

Beyond DOJ, the simultaneous installation of Trump-image banners at Agriculture, Labor, and Interior suggests the spending was not an isolated facilities decision but a coordinated use of federal resources to promote the sitting president's image across official government spaces — redirecting public funds toward partisan political display.