What the USDA Spent on the Huge Trump and Lincoln Banners
Documents obtained by FOIA Files show the banners were printed by Timsco Graphics, a Maryland-based company. The purchase order says they were procured by the USDA ‘in conjunction with the Secretary's priority.’
Security fencing near images of US President Donald Trump and former US President Abraham Lincoln on the USDA building ahead of the US Army's 250th Anniversary Parade in Washington, DC on June 14, 2025.
Photographer: Kent Nishimura/BloombergWelcome back to FOIA Files! What’s the deal with the giant portraits of Presidents Donald Trump and Abraham Lincoln that were unfurled on the front of the US Department of Agriculture’s headquarters in May? How much money did it cost taxpayers? Was the USDA trying to appeal to Trump’s vanity? Those were the questions I hoped I would eventually be able to answer when I sent the agency a FOIA request. Last week, the USDA provided me with 10 pages of documents that contained some responses to my queries. If you’re not already getting FOIA Files in your inbox, sign up here.
This year marked the 163rd anniversary of the USDA, an agency created by Lincoln in 1862, after the outbreak of the Civil War. It was a time when about half of Americans lived on farms, compared to fewer than 2% today. Lincoln himself spent his earliest childhood years on a farm in Kentucky, called Knob Creek, and once said: “Every blade of grass is a study; and to produce two, where there was but one, is both a profit and a pleasure.”