Top Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin is calling for an independent investigation and potential legal action against members of the Trump administration for taxpayer-funded pro-Trump ads.
Three television spots promoting President Donald Trump have aired in just over a month ahead of the midterms that were “Paid for by the U.S. Government.” A fourth, focused on Trump’s Iran war and using quotes from Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, started airing Wednesday.
Critics have warned the fawning spots amount to government propaganda and argue that those who created the ads violated multiple federal laws.
Raskin, the ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee, along with Democratic Rep. George Whitesides of California, called for the Government Accountability Office and U.S. Office of Special Counsel to investigate.
They sent a letter to the two independent agencies demanding a probe to determine who should be found accountable if laws had been violated.
“The American people are apparently paying for Donald Trump to create desperate pre-election propaganda,” the Democratic lawmakers wrote. ”Both Congress and your agencies have a responsibility to immediately investigate this shameless theft of public funds and violation of multiple federal statutes, including the Hatch Act.”
A CNN report said the White House video team is creating the ads and that the president himself is behind them.
The White House defended the ads as “Public Service Announcements,” but Democrats have rejected the claims.
One of the ads includes imagery of Trump as the song “Love Me” by JMSN plays, as well as audio of UFC President Dana White praising the president. Another uses clips of Trump’s visit to Mount Rushmore. The third is nearly identical to a Trump ad from the 2024 campaign where the president blasts the “deep state” and vows to drive out warmongers.
“These ads constitute an illegal use of taxpayer funds, perhaps best demonstrated by the fact that they are virtually identical to the ones Donald Trump used during his 2024 presidential campaign, and in fact use the same footage and the same inept ideological messaging,” Raskin’s letter argued.
While in one of the ads, Trump vows to defeat communists and socialists, the lawmakers wrote that the president’s own actions in office “recall the conduct of some of the worst Stalinist regimes in world history.”
Among the laws they believe were violated are not only the Hatch Act, but also the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2026, which prohibits the use of federal money to pay for government propaganda, as well as the Anti-Deficiency Act, and the Federal Criminal Statutes.
They’ve called on the GAO to look into the sources, accounts and total amount of taxpayer funds used by the president’s office to create and distribute the ads across television markets and social media as well as issue a legal decision on whether they violated federal law.
They’ve also asked the Office of Special Counsel to determine which laws were violated and who should be held accountable.
The watchdog group Public Citizen also filed a complaint with the GAO and the Office of Special Counsel this week.
“For anyone with a modicum of ethics, common sense or respect for the law, it’s the most basic thing: Taxpayer funds cannot pay for partisan political propaganda,” said its co-president Lisa Gilbert.
The Daily Beast asked GAO for comment on opening investigations. OSC also confirmed receipt of the letter but declined to comment.
The letter was sent the same day that the ad using military images and quotes on Iran started airing. The letter was written before that ad hit television screens, but the spot also had the exact same disclosure that it was paid for by the U.S. government.
