I was surprised to see banners depicting Donald Trump and Abraham Lincoln on the headquarters of the US Department of Agriculture. I couldn’t understand why they were being lauded on the building but learned after some research that they both have played a large role in the organization — one in establishing it and the other in downsizing it by firing employees in positions that were “no longer necessary.”
On May 15, 1862, Abraham Lincoln established the independent Department of Agriculture through the Morrill Act to be headed by a commissioner without Cabinet status.
In February 2025, the Trump administration fired multiple probationary employees at the USDA, including researchers in a division dedicated to using science to protect the nation's food supply, as well as people working on the highly pathogenic avian influenza, whom they later tried to reinstate. In March 2025, the USDA cut two federal programs that provided about $1 billion in funding to schools and food banks to buy food directly from local farms, ranchers and producers.
Another anti-Trump statue on the National Mall, posted earlier:
