Docs shed light on DOJ spending for Trump banners
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/24/trump-banners-doj-cost-01009924
Docs shed light on DOJ spending for Trump banners
The multistory banners of the presidential visage have also attracted congressional scrutiny.
07/24/2026 03:38 PM EDT
The Justice Department spent nearly a million dollars to spruce up the exterior of its Washington headquarters, including controversial banners putting Washingtonians under the watchful eye of President Donald Trump.
Records obtained by POLITICO share more details on how Trump’s visage ended up adorning the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building, otherwise known as Main Justice. The department signed a contract in January for a “RFK Beautification Project” to clean the building’s exterior walls, upgrade the facade lighting system and install “Celebratory Banners.”
The project’s total price rang in at $892,192.07, according to the documents. A federal contracting database showed another $54,768 charge for the project was added under a “supplemental agreement” just this week. In the released records, officials blacked out the line-item costs for creating and hanging the massive banners.
Several federal agencies have also hung banners of Trump at their headquarters buildings, some of them ostensibly in celebration of the United States’ 250th birthday earlier this month. The decorations also fit with Trump’s penchant for self-promotion, placing his name on Washington landmarks, and have attracted congressional scrutiny.
Under
the Justice contract, Llorente Enterprises, an Alexandria,
Virginia-based construction services company, was to design, produce and
install six banners, including two banners on the Pennsylvania Avenue
corners of the building. Also in the records were “Banner Placement
Illustrations” — photos of the Justice building with red squares drawn
on, showing where the banners should be hung.
The banners at Justice’s headquarters facing Pennsylvania Avenue show Trump’s face above the phrase “MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN,” heeding his MAGA campaign slogan, a reporter spotted earlier this week.
The banners were to take two to three weeks to fabricate once their design was finalized. “Banners will be hung after phase 1 power washing is complete,” said the contract’s scope of work.
To hang the banners on the building’s corners, small eyelet screws would be screwed into the column and base as “anchor points” — the department’s “preferred method,” the records indicated — or securing the banners with cables wrapped around the column’s decorative portion.
The contract was not just for hanging banners. It also called for low-pressure washing and cleaning of the building’s exterior surfaces as well as maintenance and lamp upgrades of the facade lighting system.
The records, which were obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, spell out itemized costs for the beautification project’s various expenses. Yet those figures are redacted under FOIA’s exemption for trade secrets.
Justice Department officials declined to specify the exact cost for the banner-related work, saying that sort of information is generally considered proprietary.
“The banners were part of a broader beautification project for the historic RFK building, executed under an existing DOJ construction contract,” a DOJ spokesperson said. “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.”
The contract’s start date was Jan. 15 and it ended May 15. It also was a sole source contract not available for competition, according to data
on USAspending.gov. A DOJ official, who was granted anonymity to
discuss internal handling of the project, said an existing contract was
tapped for the work “due to the urgent nature of this requirement and to
ensure it was completed prior to the 250th anniversary.”
The government database shows Llorente Enterprises has held other federal contracts stretching back to the Biden administration, including with Justice and the General Services Administration. It has done several million dollars’ worth of work at Main Justice, renovating spaces used for a gift shop and museum, as well as a sensitive compartmented information facility, or SCIF, designed to handle classified information.
The company’s website says it does construction and mechanical work for government agencies, commercial customers and hospitals in the Washington metropolitan area.
Llorente Enterprises did not return messages requesting comment.
Other agencies have hung banners depicting Trump. The Department of Agriculture spent $16,400 for banners showing Trump and former President Abraham Lincoln, according to records obtained under a different FOIA request.
Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), a vocal critic of the president, has been investigating those in government that have displayed Trump banners.
In a statement last week, the senator said he found a $39,000 contract for the Department of the Interior’s banners featuring Trump. He uncovered another contract of up to $114,000 for similar banners at the Federal Aviation Administration.
“Not only is this a terrible waste of Americans’ hard-earned money, it is clearly against the law,” Schiff said.
The
California Democrat added, “Congress has long outlawed spending tax
dollars on propaganda and self-aggrandizement and an eight-story-high Donald Trump head certainly qualifies as propaganda.”
Contact Kevin Bogardus on the encrypted messaging app Signal at KevinBogardus.89 and Josh Gerstein at joshgerstein.46.
No comments:
Post a Comment