US justice department hangs banner of Donald Trump at headquarters

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The US Department of Justice has hung a large banner of Donald Trump outside its building, a stark symbol of the president’s influence over a body that historically maintained a degree of distance from the White House.

The DoJ on Thursday affixed to its Washington headquarters a large blue banner with Trump’s face that reads “MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN”, a slogan often used by the president and echoed by US attorney-general Pam Bondi, a Trump loyalist.

The banner appears to highlight fears raised by Trump’s critics, who accuse the president of seeking to transform the department that once brought criminal charges against him into his personal enforcement branch — claims the DoJ rejects.

William Kristol, a Trump critic who served as chief of staff to vice-president Dan Quayle in George HW Bush’s administration, slammed the banner.

“Shameful — but in a way useful,” he wrote in a post on X on Thursday. “No one should any longer pretend we have a ‘Department of Justice.’ We have a Department of Trump.”

During Trump’s second term, the department has come under fire for indicting the president’s perceived opponents, its handling of files linked to late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and its response to the conduct of federal immigration agents in Minnesota, who shot and killed Renée Good and Alex Pretti in separate incidents.

The banner is the latest effort by Trump to brand government buildings across Washington. His name has been added to the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which the president said will close for roughly two years for renovations, as well as the US Institute of Peace, whose workforce the Trump administration has gutted.

Banners of Trump have been installed on other federal buildings, including the labour and agriculture departments.

The White House referred comment to the DoJ, which 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 US in July will mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, which freed American colonies from the British monarchy’s control.