There is a 30 second commercial running on television right now. It opens with a moody black and white shot of Donald Trump staring into the camera. The audio comes from one of his rally speeches: “This is the final battle.” Then come the promises to demolish the deep state, expel the warmongers, drive out the globalists, and rout the fake news media. In the final seconds, a line appears on screen: “Paid for by the US government.”
The Guardian reported Sunday that the administration bought national airtime for the spot during the Ohio State versus Illinois game on Fox and again on Fox News Sunday, weeks before the midterm elections. The same report traced the video to Trump’s 2024 campaign. He posted it while asking supporters for money, and the Republican National Committee played it at the 2024 convention. The White House bought airtime for a campaign ad with public money, then renamed it a public service announcement.
The campaign material is right there
This is one ad in a growing series. An earlier 30 second spot began airing on Fox News and Newsmax on September 23. Associated Press reporting described Trump flashing across the screen as text boasts about the “largest tax cuts in history” and urges viewers to “defend law and order and police.” A soundtrack repeats the words “love me.” Dana White, who praised Trump at the 2024 Republican National Convention, closes the ad by calling him “the toughest, most resilient human being I have ever met in my life.” The disclosure says the US government paid for it.
The Guardian found Trump in almost every frame. It also found audio from an August rally where he promised to “defeat communism, socialism and Marxism in America” after identifying his enemy as “Dumocrat communists in Congress.” By Friday, the administration had committed at least $443,000 to air the first spot. The White House has not identified which agency supplied the money.
The press office calls the spots public service announcements. Its written defense says Trump is absent from the ballot and the ads contain no call to action. That distinction collapses against Trump’s own instruction to supporters to “pretend I’m on the ballot”. He told voters to treat every Republican candidate as his proxy. Taxpayers are now funding television ads that sell the proxy’s boss.
Congress already wrote the rule
Federal spending laws have carried a ban on using appropriated money for domestic “publicity or propaganda” since the 1950s. The Government Accountability Office’s test covers self promotion and material devoted to the electoral success of a party or candidate, although the office traditionally gives agencies broad room to explain their policies. Government advertisements can be perfectly legitimate. An agency can tell people how to enroll in Medicare, get vaccinated, or use a public program.
Those ordinary examples expose the White House’s dodge. Its statement points to ads from the Bush, Obama, and Biden administrations. The examples did not show the sitting president or carry partisan slogans. These new spots offer no instructions about a benefit or a program. They praise one politician, repeat his campaign language, attack his political enemies, and revive video his campaign used to raise money.
The Hatch Act raises a separate question for the employees who made and distributed the ads. The Office of Special Counsel says the president and vice president are exempt, but other federal civilian employees may not use official authority to affect an election or perform partisan political work while on duty. Its listed penalties include removal, suspension, reprimand, and civil fines.
Representative Jamie Raskin has accused employees who worked on the ads of violating the Hatch Act. He also said the spending may amount to criminal conversion of government property, an offense covered by 18 USC 641. No court has ruled on these ads, and prosecutors would have to prove that criminal accusation. The record already supports an investigation. Calling the video a public service announcement cannot settle whether its production and broadcast violated federal law.
Even a Republican senator can see it
Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana watched the administration revive the same practice he condemned in March, when Kristi Noem spent $220 million on advertisements starring herself. On Sunday’s Face the Nation, Kennedy called Noem’s campaign “master class dumb.” Then Margaret Brennan asked about Trump’s ads.
“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 in the CBS transcript. Then he stumbled into the point: “I think there ought to be a rule that you can’t … well, there probably is a rule. You can’t spend public money to promote yourself.”
There probably is a rule. In fact, there are several. Kennedy managed to recognize the conduct while treating the law as a rumor. That is how impunity works in Washington now. A senator expresses disapproval, the press office invents a label, and the public money stays spent.
The next abuse is already easier
The administration has tested this with Noem and expanded it with Trump. It moved from $220 million in personal promotion at the Department of Homeland Security to buying national airtime for presidential campaign material. Each unanswered abuse becomes the permission slip for the next one.
The disclosure at the bottom of the screen does not cleanse the ad. It records exactly who paid. Trump’s campaign supplied the words and images. His White House supplied the money. The public gets the bill, then gets told that campaign propaganda is a service.