Donald Trump’s government has unfurled an enormous banner depicting the US President’s face on the walls of his Department of Justice (DoJ) in a move experts say encapsulates his stranglehold on America’s institutions.
The banner, featuring the US President’s glowering face and inscribed with the slogan “MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN”, appeared on the exterior of the Washington headquarters of America’s government law enforcement department on Thursday.
Hanging from an outside wall, the banner is a striking symbol of the crumbling of the department’s traditional independence from the White House.
Along with other government departments, the DoJ was ransacked by the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, which laid off thousands of workers.
Over 6,400 employees out of roughly 108,000 have left, with hundreds said to have been fired for working on investigations considered illegitimate by Trump, according to the Associated Press. This included investigations into the US Capitol riots and inquiries into criminal conduct by Trump during his first presidency.
Trump has also openly called on the DoJ to launch investigations into those against whom he has said he wants revenge. The DoJ claims its investigations are not political and that it is, in fact, self-correcting, having been “weaponised” by the previous administration of former president Joe Biden.
However, the scale of politically motivated investigations under Trump is “unprecedented” and demonstrates his desire to make America his “personal fiefdom”, experts told The i Paper.
The banner looks down on workers from the side of the DoJ headquarters (Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP)Dr Fabian Hilfrich, a senior lecturer in American history at the University of Edinburgh, said: “The banner tells us that he thinks the American government is his personal fiefdom and that he does not understand that the DoJ is supposed to be independent and uphold the law.”
James Comey, the former FBI director, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell have all found themselves under investigation or indictment.
Comey and James had respectively overseen investigations into 2016 Russian election interference and Trump’s finances, and Trump had said openly he wanted to see Comey “in jail”. A judge dismissed criminal charges against them in November. The charges against Powell have been seen as politically motivated for refusing to follow Trump’s orders on interest rates.
The White House also backed investigations into several Democratic representatives who narrowly avoided indictment despite Trump branding them “seditious”.
The Democrats had recorded a video urging military personnel not to follow any illegal orders, saying: “The threats to our constitution aren’t just coming from abroad, but from right here at home.”
Dr Chase Foster, a politics lecturer at King’s College London, said the new banner, similar to those previously hung outside the agriculture and labour departments, reflected a “systematic effort to politicise” independent institutions.
“Trump is not always successful in attacking his political opponents because the judiciary is still independent, but the DoJ is a capacious organisation with incredible authority,” he said.
Comey testified against Trump – who then pursued him in the courts (Photo: Andrew Harnik/AP)“So a lot of damage can be done by bringing cases that are incredibly expensive to defend. If you face the full power of the DoJ, it’s not an even fight for a private citizen.”
A DoJ spokesperson told NBC News that the department was “proud” to celebrate its “historic work to make America safe again at President Trump’s direction”.
Trump and his supporters often argue that past investigations into Trump have themselves been politically motivated. They often cite two federal criminal cases brought against Trump as examples.
These include investigations around Trump allegedly holding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, and over his alleged role in instigating the 2021Capitol riots.
A Trump-appointed Florida judge dismissed the classified documents case, under which Trump faced multiple felony charges, including keeping the files at his estate and lying to investigators. He then allegedly tried to obstruct the investigation into the handling of the documents. The dismissal was described as deviating from the uniform conclusion of all previous courts over the issue of special counsel.
Meanwhile, a case accusing Trump of election interference was dropped when Trump returned to the White House last year because DoJ policy prohibits taking criminal action against a sitting president.
Dr Foster said one would expect to see the DoJ pursuing cases that reflect Trump’s policy priorities – such as Medicare fraud and immigration.
But the lecturer said Trump’s approach had gone beyond that, with the DoJ “used for personalistic purposes, such as self-aggrandisement, or selectively as a tool to force actors into submission”.
Former president Richard Nixon tried to change DOJ personnel to suppress the Watergate scandal which ultimately ended his presidency (Picture: AP)Dr David Andersen, Associate Professor in US politics at Durham University, said this attempt to remake the DoJ in the President’s own image has not been seen since Richard Nixon.
“There was a long tradition of the DoJ putting up a real show of independence – like the Saturday Night Massacre under Nixon, when he wanted to fire the investigator [of the Watergate scandal],” he said.
“The Attorney General didn’t want to, so Nixon fired him. Nixon kept firing until he found someone to do it. He ultimately got what he wanted, but those [DoJ] figures created a sense that the DoJ were pursuing independence.”
Trump has stuffed the justice department with loyal supporters, a change from the first Trump administration, which allowed traditional Republicans to inhabit key roles, Dr Andersen said.
On becoming President a second time, Trump appointed members of his own legal team to senior roles – including Todd Blanche, Emil Bove and D John Sauer – who had variously defended him in cases including his hush money payment to a porn star.
Critics have also accused the DoJ of suppressing damaging material held in the Epstein files.
US Attorney General Pam Bondi, who heads the DoJ, said in a letter to Congress on Saturday that the department had released all of the documents required to be shared under the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
However, the department previously said there were more than six million potential files. So far, fewer than four million have been published, with many redacted.
Attorney General Pam Bondi has been accused of holding back publication of Epstein files to protect the President (Photo: J Scott Applewhite/AP)Jamie Raskin, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, accused the DoJ of making “troubling” and “mysterious redactions”.
Asked whether the White House could be withholding information that would be damaging to Trump, Dr Andersen said: “There’s every indication that that could be the case, especially as there’s no evidence so far that Trump has any criminal contact with [Jeffrey] Epstein.”
Dr Hilfrich said that politicians hoping to counter Trump’s alleged tainting of institutional norms did have some leverage.
“Congress can object to all of this and stonewall him,” he said. “All it takes is a few from his own party. They can impeach the most craven and deny him money. We need to remember how much he depends on Congress.”
As it stands, the Grand Old Party holds narrow majorities in both the Senate and House of Representatives.
However, dissent is rare under Trump. Some 89 per cent of Republicans voted with Trump 100 per cent of the time, according to analysis conducted last summer by the left-wing think tank The Center for American Progress Action Fund.
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 White House has been approached for comment.
However, in a sign that some checks and balances on Trump’s power are still functioning, the Supreme Court voted on Friday to overturn his illegal tariff regime.
The US’s highest court ruled, in a 6-3 vote, that the President overstepped his authority when he used the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose levies at the beginning of his second term.
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That was despite Trump having packed the court with conservative judges.
While it is now illegal for the US to charge tariffs on foreign exporters, the White House is thought to be considering new measures to effectively reinstate the measures.
Trump, who previously said the tariffs of up to 50 per cent were to stop the US being “pillaged” by foreigners, reportedly branded the court ruling a “disgrace”.
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