The White House is using U.S. government money to air a series of television ads featuring President Donald Trump, including a new version of an ad his presidential campaign used in 2024.
The 30-second spot, called “Final Battle,” shows Trump walking down a hallway in black and white while his voice describes a fight against “globalists,” “warmongers” and the “fake news media.” The 2024 version ended by asking viewers to join Trump’s campaign; this one ends with the disclosure, “Paid for by the U.S. Government.”
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Government pays to put ads on TV
The “Final Battle” spot aired over the weekend during college and NFL football games and other national programming. AdImpact, which tracks advertising spending, says more than $300,000 has been spent airing it.
“We will cast out the communists, Marxists and fascists. We will throw off the sick political class that hates our country,” Trump says in the ad. “We will rout the fake news media, and we will liberate America from these villains once and for all.”
Two other government-funded ads featuring Trump have also aired in recent days. One promotes administration policies while showing images of Trump and ends with UFC President Dana White praising him as the “toughest, most resilient” person he has ever met.
“Together we will defeat communism, socialism and Marxism in America,” Trump says in the ad. “America will never be a communist country.”
Another features nighttime images of Mount Rushmore and clips from Trump’s July Fourth speech there.
The government produced the ads and bought the airtime through an advertising agency.
White House says ads are PSAs
The White House calls the spots public service announcements and says they are not political advertisements.
“The announcements are very clearly not campaign ads,” it says. “President Trump is not on the ballot and there is no call to action.”
Its page on the White House website dedicated to defending the ads also points to government-funded public messaging under previous presidents.
Federal law restricts the use of appropriated money for “publicity or propaganda.”
Campaign finance experts interviewed by CBS News said the ads likely do not violate election law because they do not support or endorse a candidate for office, although one expert said the separate federal restriction on government propaganda presents a different legal question.
Democrats demand ads be pulled
Four Democratic lawmakers are asking the White House to take the ads off the air and disclose how much taxpayer money has been spent producing and running them.
In a letter to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, they called the campaign an “egregious and illegal misuse” of taxpayer money and argued that it violates federal restrictions on using appropriated funds for publicity or propaganda.
Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana has also criticized the spending.
“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 on CBS’s “Face the Nation” Sunday. “Now, the White House sees it differently.”
