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Last week, the Department of Justice (DOJ) hung a new banner outside its headquarters featuring President Donald Trump’s face, a startling move that critics say provides the starkest evidence yet that the department is not being run as independently, despite the administration’s claims.
The banner features a solemn and stern-looking Trump prominently displayed in black and white. At the bottom of the banner, it says “Make America Safe Again.”
Trump has had similar banners hung at federal buildings throughout Washington D.C., an unusual action that has no match in modern American history. But the latest display at the DOJ is especially jarring, reminiscent of the actions of former fascist regimes like Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, some observers pointed out.
Although often violated, independence from the presidency is supposed to be a hallmark of the Justice Department. Once a president picks an attorney general to run the department, it’s generally understood that the person chosen is meant to keep their distance from the chief executive, to maintain separation from the administration’s political goals.
The Trump administration has blurred and crossed the line of independence into the DOJ, which has become noticeably subservient to his orders.
Ahead of his second term, Trump baselessly claimed that investigations into him and his allies were intentional and politically motivated — particularly, the inquiries into his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential race and his removal of classified documents from the White House after he left office following the end of his first term. One of his first actions back in office was to sign an executive order purporting to bring an end to “the weaponization of the federal government,” including at the DOJ.
In practice, however, the Trump administration has weaponized the DOJ, frequently targeting Trump’s political opponents, oftentimes doing so following his targeting of his political opponents on social media.
Attorney General Pam Bondi has demonstrated numerous times that the department she oversees caters to the whims and demands of the president, including firing career staffers at the DOJ whose jobs were to ensure the department adhered to ethics standards.
In recent testimony she gave to Congress, Bondi flattered Trump multiple times, calling him “the greatest president in American history” while demanding lawmakers present at the hearing apologize for their past criticisms of him. Far from being an independent voice at DOJ, Bondi’s performance at the hearing made it clear she was chosen to serve as Trump’s key protector at the Justice Department.
Amid this backdrop, the hanging of the Trump banner outside its headquarters on Thursday seemed to make the DOJ’s lack of independence official, critics pointed out.
“How many dictatorship-style monuments, building name changes, and fake awards do Americans have to endure?” California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) pondered following the banner’s unveiling.
“There was once a time when a president couldn’t boss the Attorney General around like his own personal lapdog,” Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-California) wrote on X.
“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,” MS Now Justice and Intelligence correspondent Ken Dilanian wrote.
Reacting to the initial raising of the banner on the DOJ building, Barb McQuade, University of Michigan Law School professor and a former U.S. attorney within the department itself, described the banner as antithetical to the Justice Department’s mission.
“We are a nation of laws, not of men. This banner symbolizes a disgusting betrayal of our values,” McQuade wrote.
In a separate post she made over the weekend, McQuade quoted a phrase inscribed on the side of the building, adding that:“[The] Trump banner symbolizes [the] president’s capture of the once-independent Justice Department. Where law ends tyranny begins.’”
Stacey Young, founder of Justice Connection — an organization of former DOJ employees that describes itself as “mobilizing to support DOJ’s apolitical workforce” — and a former DOJ lawyer herself under both Republican and Democratic administrations, also criticized the new decor.
“Hanging that banner should put to rest any doubt that Donald Trump has hijacked the independence of the Justice Department,” Young said. “He — not the American people — is the only client DOJ’s current leadership serves.”
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