Labor Secretary Lori Chavez‑DeRemer is facing backlash over her "sycophantic" remarks made to President Donald Trump during a cabinet meeting Tuesday.
“Mr. President, I invite you to see your big beautiful face on a banner in front of the Department of Labor because you are really the transformational president of the American worker," she said, while referencing a new banner unveiled on her department's headquarters.
The massive banner was unveiled on the Department of Labor headquarters in Washington, D.C. on Monday morning. It features Trump’s second inaugural portrait, the “America 250” logo, and the slogan “American Workers First.” It spans three stories of the building’s windows and sits beside an American flag and a portrait of Theodore Roosevelt bearing the same motto.
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This is not the first federal building to host such a display. In May, a similarly styled banner appeared on the Department of Agriculture building, pairing Trump’s image with one of Abraham Lincoln. That installation drew comparisons to authoritarian propaganda.
Officials defended the Labor Department banner as a celebration of labor progress under the administration. But political figures and analysts immediately criticized it.
Critics pointed to historical examples of authoritarian regimes that used citizens’ imagery on public buildings as propaganda, and compared the banner to autocratic displays.
Meanwhile, social media users were quick to post tongue in cheek reactions to the labor secretary's Tuesday remarks.
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MSNBC commentator Michael Cohen [not Trump's former attorney] wrote on the social platform X: "This is so sickeningly un-American."
Writer Slava Malamud said: "I can't even... I feel like we've just joyfully whistled past the Banana Republic Station and right into the Absurdistan Terminus."
"Spiro's Ghost," an account describing itself as "politically moderated," wrote: "North Korea is blushing at this s-- --."
Journalist Euan MacDonald wrote: "Abject servility to a cult leader. America has fallen so very low, so very quickly. Pathetic."
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Writer Michael Freeman said: "I don't know how you can say things like this and go home at the end of the day and feel good about yourself."
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