Political Tribune

Donald Trump, GOP, Opinion, Politics

Massive Trump Portrait Hung On U.S. Government Building Sparks Alarm: ‘Scary Times’

The president's face went up on the side of the Labor Department this week.

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In a movie that had a lot of people comparing him to a dictator, President Donald Trump this week unfurled a banner of his own face on the side of the Labor Department building.

“On the same day that Donald Trump said many Americans yearn for a dictatorship, his administration took a page from the book of dictators everywhere and unfurled a giant banner of the president’s face on the facade of the Department of Labor,” The New Republic reported Monday.

“The banner, which features Trump’s steely second inaugural portrait, as well as the logo for Trump’s America 250 programming and the motto ‘American Workers First,’ currently drapes over the windows of three stories of the building, according to photos posted online. Beside it are an American flag and a portrait of Theodore Roosevelt with the same text.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom was among those who mocked Trump for the Labor Department redecoration, with his “Governor Newsom Press Office” account posting a meme comparing Trump to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who Trump happened to praise yesterday:

Trump has fired hundreds of employees from the Department of Labor, including the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics after an unfavorable jobs report last month.

Earlier this month, Gizmodo reported, the Labor Department published a blog post that praised American workers while illustrating it with an AI-generated picture, titled “American Welder at Work Sparks Fly Patriotism Metal Fabrication Industry.”

“Not long after the original blog post was published, the website was subsequently updated, and the picture was changed to what appears to be a real human worker doing real human work,” Gizmodo said. “The Wayback Machine, however, still shows the original image.”

Lots of social media users commented on the new Labor Department banner:

Photo courtesy of an X screenshot. 

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Stephen Silver

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Stephen Silver is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, and contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Stephen has authored thousands of articles that focus on politics, technology, and the economy.

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