A Trump campaign spot from 2024 has resurfaced on national TV, but the New York Times reports that this time the message ends with a new tag line that's attracting some controversy: "Paid for by the U.S. Government." The black-and-white ad, which brands the fight against the "deep state" as "the final battle" and pledges to drive "warmongers" out of government, is one of at least three pro-Trump spots now being run with taxpayer funds, according to ad-tracking firm AdImpact. The ad appeared over the weekend during college and pro football games, Fox News Sunday, Saturday Night Live, the Washington Post reports, to the tune of more than $300,000. A sample, per the AP:
- "With you at my side, we will demolish the 'deep state.' We will expel the war mongers from our government. We will drive out the globalists; we will cast out the communists, Marxists, and fascists," Trump says. "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 White House calls the ads patriotic "public-service announcements" on its website, and says that with no political "call to action" or Trump himself on the ballot, "the announcements are very clearly not campaign ads," per the Post. Ethics lawyers from both parties say they may violate federal bans on propaganda and possibly the Hatch Act, with one, Richard Painter, labeling the spending an "abuse of power" and potentially impeachable. "The president and his administration have gone from breaking the law to trampling it," Norm Eisen, an Obama-era White House special counsel for ethics behind several lawsuits against the Trump administration, tells the Times. "The prior ad was bad enough, but this one openly repurposes prior political conduct." Democrats and some Republicans in Congress are demanding the ads be pulled and the costs disclosed or repaid.
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