Administration plans more ads as communications regulator declines to probe
The federal government is spending millions of taxpayer dollars on television ads that cast President Donald Trump as a hero as the midterm elections approach, drawing condemnation from two Democratic senators who called the spots “a shockingly corrupt use of taxpayer dollars.”
The ads are not explicitly campaign ads. They feature Trump prominently, warn that the United States could become a communist country, and take aim at the news media and political opponents. They are funded through the Department of Homeland Security, and experts have said the funding may be illegal, according to a Guardian report.
One spot is a rerun of a Trump campaign commercial from before the 2024 presidential election, with the addition of the label “paid for by the US government.” It shows black-and-white images of Trump walking as he promises to “throw off the sick political class that hates our country” and pledges to “rout out the fake news media.”
Another ad shows images of Trump at public events with a voiceover insisting that “America will never be a communist country,” set to the song “Love Me.” The R&B artist JMSN has said he did not authorize the use of his song and has made a cease-and-desist demand. The White House described that ad as “educational and unapologetically patriotic,” and it has termed the various ads “public service announcements.”
A third spot pairs imagery of Mount Rushmore with a narration by Trump: “The United States of America is the most successful, most accomplished, most exceptional nation ever to exist in human history.”
By last weekend, the ads had aired more than 90 times across networks including Fox, Newsmax, MS Now and CBS, the Wall Street Journal reported, appearing in settings from pro-football games to Saturday Night Live.
The chair of the federal communications regulator, Brendan Carr, has shrugged off questions about the ads, saying they raise no red flags and that his agency does not intend to investigate them. With Republican majorities in both houses of Congress, the spending appears unlikely to face a prompt congressional check.
Margaret Sullivan, a Guardian US columnist, wrote that the ads closely fit the defining characteristics of propaganda as described by the government accounting office, including “self-aggrandizement” or “puffery.” She also noted that some Republican members of Congress have questioned the ads, without producing a groundswell of bipartisan outrage so far.
Donald Sherman, who heads Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (Crew) in Washington, said Congress “has not asserted itself as the first branch of government with the power of the purse to hold the president accountable.”
The administration is planning to expand the ads in the next few weeks, according to the Guardian. “This is just the beginning,” one administration official told Axios.