The taxpayer-funded campaign borrows the president’s political rhetoric as the White House defends the spots as “public service” announcements.
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The White House has expanded a series of taxpayer-funded advertisements boosting President Donald Trump, including a new spot that repurposes imagery and political rhetoric Trump used while campaigning for president.
The latest ad is the third in a series that the White House refers to as public service announcements, but which Democratic members of Congress and former ethics officials say are political ads and therefore a potential violation of federal law.
The 30-second ad, titled “Final Battle,” features black-and-white footage of Trump staring straight into the camera as he strides through a hallway lined with portraits. The imagery and remarks echo a video Trump posted to Truth Social during the 2024 campaign.
In a voice-over, Trump promises to expel “the warmongers,” “globalists” and “deep state” actors from government and drive his political enemies from power.
“We will cast out the communists, Marxists, and fascists,” Trump says in the clip. “We will throw off the sick political class that hates our country. We will rout the fake news media, and we will liberate America from these villains once and for all.”
The ad includes a disclosure: “Paid for by the U.S. Government.”
The spot aired during “Saturday Night Live,” “Fox News Sunday,” and several college and NFL football games this weekend, according to AdImpact, an ad-tracking firm. More than $300,000 has been spent on the ad.
It was not clear which government agency was responsible for making and paying for the ads.
The earlier ads that began airing last week included one that featured campaign slogans and another featuring footage of Mount Rushmore.
Federal law, enacted annually as part of appropriations bills since the 1950s, prohibits agencies from using taxpayer money for unauthorized “publicity or propaganda.” The Government Accountability Office, Congress’s investigative arm, has interpreted that to cover communications that are purely partisan, while acknowledging that administrations may use public money to explain and defend their policies.
The latest ads have raised questions about where the White House campaign falls on that line. They prominently feature Trump, and in the case of this latest advertisement, reuse political rhetoric from his campaign.
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The White House argues that because Trump is not on the ballot and the spots contain no call to action, “the announcements are very clearly not campaign ads.”
It pointed to government-funded advertising campaigns under presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, as well as earlier administrations, as precedent for using public money to explain administration policies.
“When prior Administrations utilized the airwaves, it was called ‘public education,’” the White House said. “When this Administration promotes pride in our country, many of those same voices call it ‘propaganda.’”
In fact the GAO did find one of those previous ad campaigns to be in violation of the anti-propaganda law.
In a statement on X.com on Sunday, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung wrote: “Don’t let the Fake News get away with their lies about our epic Public Service Announcements that have been running on tv.”
Last week, several Democratic members of Congress criticized the ads in a letter to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and said the administration should stop airing them.
On Sunday, Republican Sen. John Kennedy (Louisiana) told CBS News that officials should not spend any public money on advertising used to boost their 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.”
Last year, the Department of Homeland Security led by then-secretary Kristi L. Noem spent more than $200 million on ads that prominently featured her on horseback warning that individuals who broke U.S. laws would be “hunted down and deported.”
Under questioning from Kennedy in March, Noem testified that Trump had signed off on the campaign. That prompted Trump to criticize the spending. Not long after, he fired her.
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