Trump Is Spending Your Money on Republican Campaign Ads

The president is now injecting taxpayer-funded state propaganda into the midterms

As life in America becomes more expensive under his administration, Donald Trump has embraced a new tactic to fend off Democrats’ midterm attacks — spending your tax dollars to glorify himself in public ads.

Although the president isn’t technically up for reelection this November, he has nevertheless directed his communications team to produce a number of campaign-like ads promoting himself and attaching his legacy to the upcoming midterms, where his allies are facing a wipeout at the ballot box.

The ads have reportedly aired during Fox News programs, NFL and college football games, and even NBC’s Saturday Night Live — with more on the way. They’ve largely echoed Republicans’ top midterm slogans, vowing to “cast out the communists” and liberate America from “the fake news media,” with images from Trump’s second term placed front and center. One of them ominously warns of the coming “final battle.”

Each ad shares a common denominator: “Paid for by the US Government.”

Data from the advertising analytics firm AdImpact shows that the series of three ads from the past week cost taxpayers more than $2.5 million. Although it likely goes without saying at this point, this is entirely illegal, as federal law prohibits the use of government funds on state propaganda and political promotions.

According to new information obtained by Senate Democrats, the administration has already tapped $20 million from the Department of Homeland Security budget to fund the ads — coming from the same ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ passed by Republicans responsible for cutting health care from millions of American citizens.

Diverting congressional spending to finance this kind of pet project is corruption in the highest degree. Since 1951, appropriations have been banned from being used for any kind of “publicity or propaganda,” vaguely described as “self-aggrandizement, covert propaganda, and materials that are purely partisan in nature.”

Terms synonymous with this entire administration.

“We should not have to remind you that using government funding to create or air political ads like the ones that have been running over the last few days is illegal and a shockingly corrupt misuse of taxpayer dollars,” wrote Democratic Senators Chris Murphy and Patty Murray in a letter to the administration.

Moreover, the ads “may be felony criminal theft and conversion of government property for political campaign purposes,” added Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin. “It is blatantly unethical under numerous federal ethics provisions proscribing the use of government resources for political campaigns.”

The White House has nevertheless defended the legality of the ads, arguing they fall under the context of ‘public service announcements,’ commonly used under previous administrations to promote various policies and initiatives.

Examples include George W. Bush’s Thanks For Giving campaign — which encouraged donations and volunteering after 9/11 — the Obama administration’s ACA healthcare enrollment promotions, and more recently, the Biden administration’s Covid-19 vaccination initiatives.

Trump’s ads don’t even remotely fit that category, however, as unlike the actual public service announcements mentioned, they don’t promote anything other than his own political agenda ahead of a make-or-break election. This is taxpayer-funded propaganda, plain and simple.

“You watch all three ads; they’re sheer propaganda,” said Richard Painter, a former ethics advisor who served under George W. Bush. “This is increasingly looking like what authoritarian governments do to promote their leaders.”

Donald Trump’s reckless leadership is already costing us more in groceries, gas, and health care, but now he’s even forcing us to fund his own political legacy. We’re all Trump donors now, whether we want to be or not (and we absolutely do not).

Whether this illegal scheme actually does anything to help his cause, however, remains to be seen. Namely, Republicans have admitted behind closed doors that Donald Trump’s plummeting approval represents the primary threat to their reelection chances. This is the one election where conservatives running in purple states in particular would prefer to have their campaigns decoupled from the actions of the White House.

The president’s ego is nonetheless bigger than ever, and we can expect him to keep forcing himself front and center, whether his party wants him to or not.

Regardless, the ads are a reminder of the extreme lengths this administration is willing to go to save its thin and bruised political skin — no matter how many laws it breaks in the process.

After all, Trump has already encouraged record mid-decade partisan redistricting, tried to disenfranchise tens of millions of women through the SAVE Act, and most recently, illegally ordered the USPS to effectively shut down mail-in voting using a flawed ballot verification system.

We can only expect Republicans and the White House to intensify their efforts to suppress voters and rig the system the closer we get to election day, and we need to be prepared to stop them in their tracks.

We’ve said it once, but we’ll say it again — voters need to turn out in record numbers to make this one ‘too big to rig.’ Anything less will leave the door wide open for Republican election interference, and we cannot afford to give them an inch.

Your tax dollars are already funding pro-Trump advertisements, so if you can, please consider taking some time out of your day to support the candidates who are fighting to restore the American dream and end this dark chapter of our history.

Trump’s ads call this the final battle, so let’s finish him.

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