Three ads aired on Fox, Newsmax and during NFL games
Public Citizen, an advocacy group, sent a letter Wednesday to the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission urging the agencies to direct broadcasters to stop airing the three ads, which the group said were “designed to boost the image and character of Donald Trump” as part of the Republican campaign for the November midterm elections.
“Federal law explicitly prohibits using appropriated public funds for government propaganda, self-aggrandizement, or partisan political advertising,” the organization wrote in its letter. “Yet, that is exactly the nature of Trump’s recent campaign ads.”
Public Citizen strongly urged the agencies to “direct broadcasters to stop broadcasting these apparently illegal campaign advertisements” and called on individual broadcasters to cease airing them. “It is the greater responsibility of both the FCC [and] FTC and individual broadcasters to keep the airwaves fair and honest and operate in the ‘public interest, convenience, and necessity,’” the group wrote.
The group noted that broadcast stations cannot reject ads from legally qualified political candidates, but said Trump is not technically a candidate, although he has urged voters to imagine that he is on the November ballot, so the special rule protecting candidate advertisements does not apply.
“Donald Trump is not a candidate for any elective office,” the group wrote. “The FCC and broadcasters are not constrained by the special rule protecting candidate advertisements.”
Although the White House contends the ads are “public service announcements” and therefore may be paid for with taxpayer dollars, Public Citizen argued they “do not meet the standard of a public service announcement.” The group said the ads “do not refer to any specific governmental program and they do not serve the purpose of informing the public about any specific governmental program.”
The Wall Street Journal reported that the commercials were funded by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, an agency within the Department of Homeland Security. The ads had aired more than 90 times by Sunday evening across nationwide channels, including Fox, Newsmax, MSNow and CBS, during “Saturday Night Live,” “Fox News Sunday” and several college and NFL football games, according to the Journal. Public Citizen estimated the cost of the three ads already broadcast at more than $1 million.
The Department of Homeland Security came under scrutiny earlier this year after a $200 million advertising campaign that boosted Kristi Noem, then the homeland security secretary. Noem told a congressional committee that Trump had “signed off on the ads.” Her testimony reportedly infuriated Trump, who subsequently fired her.
Axios reported that more ads are set to broadcast, with Trump personally choosing which to use during the campaign for November’s midterms, which most polls suggest the Republicans are on course to lose. “This is just the beginning,” an administration official told Axios. The ads are being produced inside the White House, Axios reported.
One of the spots is a re-run of a commercial aired by the Trump campaign before the 2024 presidential election, featuring black-and-white footage of Trump walking while his voice announces “the final battle.” He pledges to “throw off the sick political class that hates our country” and “rout the fake news media.” According to the Guardian, the only difference from the 2024 ad is the addition of text identifying the U.S. government as the funder.
Another ad shows images of Trump at various events while he declares “America will never be a communist country,” set to a choir singing “Love Me.” A third shows Mount Rushmore as Trump declares that “the United States of America is the most successful, most accomplished, most exceptional nation ever to exist in human history.”
The White House responded by labeling the ads as “public service announcements” and equating them to past presidential PSAs dating back to Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt in the first and second world wars, and including the more recent administrations of George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden. On its website, the White House denounced the criticism as “highly dishonest” and said, “The announcements are very clearly not campaign ads; President Trump is not on the ballot and there is no call to action.” It said the ads are “a reminder for Americans to love their country and know why it’s worth defending – at home, at the border, and abroad.”
The Guardian contacted the FCC and FTC for comment.