Democrats flag Hatch Act concerns over taxpayer-funded Fox ad
The White House on Friday defended its decision to spend taxpayer money on a pro-Trump ad that aired on Fox News this week, calling it a routine “public service announcement” like campaigns from previous administrations. The 30-second spot, which features President Donald Trump in nearly every frame, drew sharp criticism from Democrats who questioned whether federally funded airtime in the run-up to midterm elections violates federal law.
In a lengthy statement to news outlets, the White House press office said the ad, which was also posted on official TikTok and YouTube accounts before airing on Fox, “are very clearly not campaign ads.” The statement noted that “President Trump is not on the ballot and there is no call to action,” and called the announcement “a reminder for Americans to love their country and know why it’s worth defending – at home, at the border, and abroad.”
The broadcast version, however, contains political slogans and imagery that distinguish it from the public information campaigns the White House cited as precedent. The ad pairs audio of Trump telling supporters in Las Vegas last month—“Together we will defeat communism, socialism and Marxism in America”—with a rapid-fire montage of Trump images beneath onscreen text declaring, “America will never be a communist country.” In the original speech, Trump identified the enemy as “Dumocrat communists in Congress.”
Additional onscreen text in the broadcast edit boasts about what Trump calls his accomplishments: “Largest tax cuts in history,” “Reigniting American manufacturing,” and “Defend law and order and police.” The final 10 seconds of the ad display the disclaimer, “Paid for by the US government.”
The ad closes with a tribute from Dana White, the Ultimate Fighting Championship chief executive, who is heard saying, “He is the toughest, most resilient human being I have ever met in my life.” White used that formulation repeatedly during the 2024 presidential campaign, including at the Republican National Convention.
The White House pointed to three previous administrations’ paid campaigns as comparable. The 2002 Office of National Drug Control Policy Super Bowl spot, which connected drug use to terrorist funding, made no mention of political parties or then-President George W. Bush. A 2015 healthcare.gov enrollment ad did not show or mention Barack Obama. A 2021 Department of Health and Human Services Covid-19 vaccine promotion made no mention of Joe Biden.
Slowing down the rapid-fire montage in the Trump-era ad reveals that the imagery is almost exclusively of the president: scenes of Trump overseeing the US military raid on Venezuela, hosting a state dinner for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, accepting the Fifa peace prize, pardoning a turkey, announcing a new class of US Navy ships to be named for himself, attending a Kennedy Center performance, awarding the Fifa Club World Cup trophy, showing Cristiano Ronaldo his presidential walk of fame, and addressing McDonald’s owners.
The ad aired on Fox News in New York City, Los Angeles, Miami, and Washington, as well as on Newsmax in Chicago, according to AdImpact, a firm that tracks political advertising. The administration has spent at least $443,000 to run the spot, according to the Associated Press. The airtime came during a state visit by the leader of China, the world’s largest communist nation under the ruling party’s official terminology.
On Friday, AdImpact also reported that the White House paid to broadcast a second ad featuring Trump, with excerpts from his July 3 address at Mount Rushmore. That ad, which aired on Newsmax, includes images of the president’s supporters waving Trump flags and ends with Trump repeating a slogan he has used dozens of times: “This is only the beginning of the golden age of America.”
Representative Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat and constitutional scholar, wrote on social media that the broadcast ad “may be felony criminal theft and conversion of government property for political campaign purposes.” He added, “It is a Hatch Act violation for any government employees who worked on it or used government resources to make it,” and called it “blatantly unethical under numerous federal ethics provisions proscribing the use of government resources for political campaigns.”
JMSN, the Detroit-born artist who wrote and performs “Love Me,” the song whose chorus appears in the ad, said the music was used “illegally” because the White House never sought permission. “I would never authorize my music to be used for ANY political agenda or campaign,” the singer wrote on social media, adding, “I am looking at lawyers handling this.”
Trump, in recent weeks, has urged supporters to “pretend I’m on the ballot” and vote for Republicans in the upcoming midterm elections.