Administration's pro-Trump TV ad is taxpayer-funded
The Trump administration is running a new pro-Trump advertisement on cable news featuring President Donald Trump boasting about his record and vowing the United States "will never be a communist country."
The 30-second spot, which is labeled "Paid for by the U.S. Government," ran repeatedly this week on conservative cable news channels Fox News and Newsmax across several media markets, according to AdImpact, a media buying and tracking firm, and cost roughly $14,000.
The White House told ABC News the ad is a "public service announcement" and argued that it is "educational" and not political."
"These public service announcements are about reminding Americans to love their country and understand what makes it worth defending, at home, at our borders, and abroad. The ad is educational and unapologetically patriotic. We should be proud of our country," a White House spokesperson said in a statement.
"The PSAs are clearly not political," a White House official added in a statement. "The President is not on the ballot and the ads don't have a call to action."
Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee who would help lead congressional oversight efforts if his party retakes the House this fall, condemned the ad on X.
"This may be felony criminal theft and conversion of government property for political campaign purposes," Raskin wrote. "It is a Hatch Act violation for any government employees who worked on it or used government resources to make it. It is blatantly unethical under numerous federal ethics provisions proscribing the use of government resources for political campaigns."
The Hatch Act restricts certain political activities by federal employees and by some state, Washington, D.C., and local government workers who are involved or work in federally funded programs.
The ad appears identical to a 30-second video uploaded to the White House YouTube page on Sept. 13, titled "America Will Never Be a Communist Country," that is not labeled as it was when it aired on Fox.
In the ad, Trump is heard saying, "Together we will defeat communism, socialism and Marxism in America. America will never be a communist country."
"LARGEST TAX CUTS IN HISTORY," "REIGNITING AMERICAN MANUFACTURING," and "DEFEND LAW AND ORDER AND POLICE" are shown on screen in bright red letters, as the ad rolls through photos of President Trump in rapid succession.
The ad includes a clip of UFC CEO Dana White's speech from the Republican National Convention, calling Trump "the toughest, most resilient person I've ever met."
According to the Congressional Research Service, no single agency is responsible for oversight of department advertising budgets.
There are several restrictions on how public funds can be used for PSAs, including a ban on using funds for "publicity or propaganda purposes not authorized by the Congress" in appropriations bills that fund government agencies.
"This advertisement looks like puffery," Kevin Kosar, the author of the 2014 CRS report who is now a senior fellow with the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute, told ABC News.
The Trump administration -- specifically the Department of Homeland Security --has faced criticism for a multimillion-dollar ad campaign that featured then-Secretary Kristi Noem urging "self-deportation" and the $220 million taxpayer-funded campaign behind it.
Trump pushed back then on suggestions that he had approved that ad.
"I wasn't thrilled with it. I spent less money than that to become president," he told NBC News in March.
