By John Q. Hosedrinker 
The USDA, during a period of budget cuts to school and food bank aid, spent over $16,000 on banners featuring former President Donald Trump and Abraham Lincoln. These banners were displayed outside the department’s Washington headquarters in May, coinciding with the USDA’s 163rd anniversary. The display occurred around the same time the USDA slashed $1 billion in funding from “pandemic-era” federal programs. According to a work order, the banners were printed and installed by Timsco Graphics, and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins celebrated the display as ushering in a “Golden Age for our farmers.”
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USDA spent thousands on giant Trump banners as it was cutting aid to schools and food banks, report says. The sheer audacity of it all, right? The USDA, the very agency supposed to be helping schools and food banks, decided it was a good idea to spend thousands of dollars on giant banners featuring Donald Trump. And, according to the reports, this was happening while those same schools and food banks were seeing their aid slashed. It’s a gut punch to think about it. You’ve got kids going hungry, families struggling, and yet, the government is prioritizing…well, a gigantic portrait of the former president. It really does boggle the mind.
The picture painted is pretty clear: priorities are seriously skewed. There’s a real sense of anger and frustration boiling beneath the surface, and you can understand why. People are out there, volunteering at food banks, seeing the need firsthand, and then hearing about this. It’s like a slap in the face, a reminder of the disconnect between those in power and the people they’re supposed to be serving. The idea of celebrating Trump while people are going without basic necessities? It’s a stark and troubling contrast.
The sheer amount of money spent seems excessive. Sixteen thousand dollars for banners? It’s enough to make anyone’s jaw drop. You start to wonder what that money could have done if it had been used to help people. How many meals could have been provided? How many schools could have been better equipped? It just makes the whole thing even more infuriating. There’s a feeling that this was a deliberate choice, a statement, not just about the former president but about where the administration’s loyalties lay.
It’s hard to ignore the symbolism of it all. Big, bold images of Trump plastered everywhere. It’s the kind of thing you’d expect in a dictatorship, where the leader’s image is constantly on display to remind everyone who’s in charge. The idea of using government resources to promote a single individual is deeply troubling. It feels like a blatant attempt to rewrite history, to create a narrative of unwavering support, even as real people are suffering.
The contrast with the cuts to aid is particularly jarring. While the government was seemingly preoccupied with promoting its leader, it was also making decisions that directly impacted the most vulnerable. Schools and food banks, places that are essential for supporting communities, were feeling the pinch. The impact of these cuts would have been felt every day by families struggling to get by.
The whole situation is a reminder of how easily power can be abused. It highlights the importance of accountability and transparency. When decisions are made in secret, when funds are spent without proper oversight, it creates opportunities for corruption and the misuse of public resources. And when these actions disproportionately harm those who are already struggling, it’s even more egregious.
The comments about the imagery itself are also worth noting. The choice of the image, the way it’s being used, is being described as terrifying. It’s a reminder of how powerful symbols can be and how they can be used to manipulate and control. The idea of having Trump’s image everywhere is a pretty clear indication of how this administration’s priorities were set.
This all just adds fuel to the fire of a very real concern about the direction the country was heading. The comparisons to other historical figures, and regimes with authoritarian tendencies, are not accidental. They reflect a genuine fear that these actions are a step toward something darker, a dismantling of democratic values.
The fact that these actions are happening while other major issues are going unaddressed makes it all even more frustrating. The people struggling to get by are not getting help, and the government is focused on self-promotion. It paints a pretty grim picture.
It seems like the kind of story that reinforces distrust in government. It’s a case of priorities that are clearly out of whack, and a reminder that the people in power may not always have the best interests of the public at heart. It’s about accountability. It’s about how we need to make sure that public funds are used responsibly and that those in power are held to a high standard. It’s a call to action.