Trump Administration’s Labor Department Under Fire for Controversial Religious-Themed Campaign

Federal agencies under the Trump administration have launched a series of propaganda-style posters that blend religious imagery with workplace messaging, sparking criticism for their stylistic similarities to authoritarian propaganda and exclusionary depictions of the American workforce.

The Department of Labor’s recent campaign for “Project Firewall” features Norman Rockwell-inspired imagery that prominently displays white Christian families in idealized settings. One poster shows a white family sitting together on a church pew with the caption “A Dream Worth Fighting For.” Another depicts a white couple with two children gazing at a suburban home with a white-steepled church, school, and factory in the background, captioned with a message about the department’s mission to “RESTORE THE AMERICAN DREAM.”

Despite the religious imagery, Project Firewall itself has no religious component. According to the Labor Department’s official description, it is “an H-1B enforcement initiative that will safeguard the rights, wages and job opportunities of highly skilled American workers” by investigating employers who use the visa program to hire foreign workers.

The H-1B visa program has become a flashpoint in the administration’s broader immigration crackdown. These visas allow American companies, particularly in the technology sector, to hire specialized talent from abroad. The administration contends these hiring practices deprive Americans of job opportunities, though major employers dispute this characterization.

In an unprecedented move, Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer announced she will “personally certify the initiation of investigations” into companies using H-1B visas, signaling the heightened priority the administration has placed on this issue.

Critics have drawn parallels between the poster campaign and historical propaganda from authoritarian regimes. The images predominantly feature white men in various professional attire—hard hats, lab coats, and muscle shirts—alongside patriotic slogans. The Voice, a media outlet that analyzed the campaign, noted “the deliberate absence of women and people of color,” with only one poster including them—positioned beneath a towering white male figure.

“The aesthetic centers white masculinity as the symbol of national strength,” The Voice reported, comparing the imagery to Nazi Germany’s propaganda that “popularized posters of blond, muscular men as the ‘ideal German worker'” while limiting women to maternal roles and erasing minorities entirely.

This portrayal starkly contrasts with America’s actual workforce demographics, where women constitute nearly half of all workers and dominate sectors like healthcare and education. Black, Latino, Asian, and indigenous workers form the backbone of numerous industries from construction to agriculture, while immigrant labor supports much of the nation’s infrastructure.

The Department of Homeland Security under Secretary Kristi Noem has employed similar visual messaging in its campaigns, suggesting a coordinated aesthetic approach across multiple federal agencies.

Beyond the controversial imagery, the Labor Department has also promoted questionable economic data. Secretary Chavez-DeRemer recently amplified a social media post from President Trump claiming economic prosperity, reduced inflation, and beneficial effects from tariff policies. However, recent reporting from CBS News contradicts these assertions, noting that “Manufacturers in the U.S. are cutting thousands of jobs even as President Trump pushes economic policies that he says will revitalize the industry.” The report cites data showing that employers eliminated 12,000 manufacturing jobs in August alone, with the sector losing 42,000 positions since April.

The administration’s communications strategy appears tailored to appeal to white Christian evangelicals, who remain Trump’s most reliable political base. By incorporating church imagery and traditional family structures in government messaging about economic policy, these campaigns blend religious identity with nationalist economic messaging in ways that government communications have traditionally avoided.

As the government shutdown continues, the Labor Department’s controversial campaign highlights growing tensions about representation, economic reality, and the role of religious imagery in official government communications.