A Republican foe of Donald Trump has raised the alarm on the president after his administration released a third eyebrow-raising taxpayer-funded advertisement.
As Trump prepares for the crucial midterm elections, his administration has already aired two separate ads promoting the president, also paid for with taxpayer money. One showcased his anti-communist sentiments, while another, which began airing on Friday, used clips from Trump’s July 4 speech.
The White House has insisted they are not advertisements, but rather “Presidential public service announcements.”
The third ad is identical to one that aired in 2024 with one key change. Where the previous one for the last election read, “Join President Trump’s Fight For America,” the latest iteration includes a disclaimer at the end that reads, “Paid for by the U.S. Government.”
The recycled black-and-white ad shows Trump, 80, walking ominously down a hallway. The audio contains footage from a rally speech and includes the lines, “This is the final battle. With you at my side, we will demolish the deep state. We will expel the warmongers from our government.”
It also warns of communism and “the fake news media,” as his supporters can be heard cheering. It ends with Trump promising, “And we will liberate America from these villains once and for all.”
The advertisement was seen on Saturday Night Live, Fox News Sunday and several college and NFL football games this weekend, according to the New York Times, citing data from ad-analytics firm AdImpact.
The reaction to the taxpayer-funded political ads has been swift and furious, including from Trump’s own party.
Republican Thomas Massie posted on X, “Don’t worry, using taxpayer dollars to run ominous campaign ads of the President has been done before and is completely legal… in banana republics."
He later commented on the video: “So much for DOGE. This is the kind of waste, fraud, and abuse they were originally supposed to go after.”
Massie lost his Republican primary in Kentucky after Trump endorsed his opponent Ed Gallrein in May. Massie has regularly criticized Trump, most notably pushing for the release of the Epstein files. He also introduced articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth earlier this month.
Republican John Kennedy also weighed in, telling CBS’ Face the Nation on Sunday that politicians should not use public money on advertising designed to promote their own image.
“I don’t think any public official, including President Trump or Kristi Noem or John Kennedy, should spend public money on private ads for themselves,” Kennedy said. “Now, the White House sees it differently. But I think there ought to be a rule that you can’t—well there probably is a rule—that you can’t spend public money to promote yourself.”
The Louisiana senator was part of a heated oversight hearing in March, where former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was questioned over a $220 million taxpayer-funded TV ad campaign that featured her prominently. Trump fired her shortly after the hearing.
Another Trump foe, lawyer George Conway, posted on X, “Our tax dollars are being spent to indulge the fantasies and to soothe the fragile ego of a narcissistic sociopath who is falling deeper and deeper into psychosis.”
Podcast host Matthew Yglesias wrote on X, “They’re just stealing your money to pay for this.”
Under federal law, agencies cannot use taxpayer funds for unauthorized “publicity or propaganda.” The Government Accountability Office, which is the investigative arm of Congress, has interpreted that clause to include purely partisan communications, while acknowledging administrations may use public money to explain and defend their policies.
While governments can fund advertising, it must be used to promote issues such as public health awareness or military recruitment and the advertising must remain non-partisan.
“The president and his administration have gone from breaking the law to trampling it,” Norm Eisen, former White House special counsel for ethics and government reform under President Barack Obama, told the Times.
“The prior ad was bad enough, but this one openly repurposes prior political conduct.”
Richard Painter, a former White House ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush, told the Times that using taxpayer funds for Trump’s ads could be an “abuse of power.”
Painter also urged Congress to demand the Trump administration reimburse the cost of the three ads that have aired, which the Times estimated could be over $1 million, judging from an AdImpact estimate modeled on the markets where the ads were spotted airing.
It is unclear which government agency is responsible for the ads, according to the Washington Post.
Painter followed up on X, saying the ads “could be an impeachable offense” and said that Trump has “no right to use taxpayer money for campaign ads.’
He added, “Congress has expressly prohibited government sponsored political propaganda, which is dangerous for democracy.”
A White House spokesperson told the Daily Beast in a statement, “These public service announcements are about reminding Americans to love their country and understand what makes it worth defending, at home, at our borders, and abroad. The ad is educational and unapologetically patriotic. We should be proud of our country.”
A White House official added, “The PSAs are clearly not political. The President is not on the ballot and the ads don’t have a call to action.”
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung posted on X on Sunday, “Don’t let the Fake News get away with their lies about our epic Public Service Announcements that have been running on tv.”
Trump has repeatedly told Republicans to vote as if he is on the ballot in the midterms, despite his tanking popularity becoming toxic for the party.
“Pretend I’m on the ticket,” Trump told Fox News this month, “Because in a way, I am on the ballot.”
The White House also cited previous PSA ads by former presidents, including a 2003 Medicare ad from George W. Bush, Barack Obama promoting an EPA water rule on social media in 2014 and 2015, and Joe Biden’s “We Can Do This” campaign to encourage COVID vaccination in 2021.
