The White House has spent days fiercely defending three\u00a0taxpayer-funded advertisements\u00a0that glorify\u00a0President Donald Trump\u00a0and are nearing at least $1.5 million in public spending, calling them public service announcements like those used in past administrations.<\/p>\n
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\u201cDon\u2019t let the Fake News get away with their lies about our epic Public Service Announcements that have been running on tv,\u201d White House communications director Steven Cheung posted on X on Sunday.<\/p>\n
But the Republican administration\u2019s ads attracted mounting criticism on Monday, including from members of Trump\u2019s own party.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt shouldn\u2019t be paid for with taxpayer dollars,\u201d Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would not have been something that I would have done. And I know that the White House is not covered by the same guidance that we are, but it\u2019s not something that I would have done,\u201d said Sen. Mike Rounds, another South Dakota Republican.<\/p>\n
Multiple legal experts consulted by The Associated Press said the ads appear to run afoul of federal statutes, including a law against congressionally appropriated funds being used for \u201cpublicity or propaganda\u201d and a law that limits the partisan political activities of government employees.<\/p>\n
They said the new ads, which are airing on network and cable TV and streaming, differ from other administrations\u2019 PSAs because they aren\u2019t designed to help Americans access any specific program.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou watch all three ads, they\u2019re sheer propaganda,\u201d said Richard Painter, a former White House ethics czar under Republican President George W. Bush. \u201cThis is increasingly looking like what authoritarian governments do to promote their leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n
The heightened scrutiny comes as the Trump administration has\u00a0increased spending\u00a0on the ads and bought time on popular TV shows, including college football and National Football League programming. It remains unclear which part of the government is supplying the funds.<\/p>\n
With both chambers of Congress led by Republicans, any oversight would likely have to come from Trump\u2019s allies, decreasing the likelihood of hearings or other accountability efforts before\u00a0November\u2019s midterm elections.<\/p>\n
Three ads have aired in less than a week, totaling well over $1M<\/h4>\n
The first ad in the campaign, which began airing last Wednesday, features clips of Trump talking about defeating communism interspersed with onscreen text promoting the \u201clargest tax cuts in history,\u201d \u201creigniting American manufacturing\u201d and a call to \u201cdefend law and order and police.\u201d<\/p>\n
Later in the week, a second ad began running, showing scenic videos of Mount Rushmore at night with quotes and clips from Trump\u2019s Fourth of July weekend speech there honoring the country\u2019s 250th anniversary.<\/p>\n
The latest of the ads, a spot first aired over the weekend, is virtually identical to an ad for Trump\u2019s Republican reelection campaign in 2024. It shows him walking down a hallway as his voice can be heard warning of a \u201cfinal battle\u201d against \u201cglobalists\u201d and \u201cwarmongers.\u201d<\/p>\n
All three ads end with a message that says: \u201cPaid for by the U.S. Government.\u201d The White House hasn\u2019t responded to inquiries about which part of the government is paying.<\/p>\n
According to AdImpact, which tracks media spending, the spots have so far cost more than $1.4 million and run across a wide range of TV networks around the country. The actual amount spent could be significantly more, depending on whether networks classified the ad as a political ad.<\/p>\n
The ads are different from past PSAs, experts say<\/h4>\n
In defending the campaign, the White House published a list of PSAs from recent Democratic and Republican administrations.<\/p>\n
Among the examples it cited were Bush\u2019s Republican administration touting a Medicare law, Barack Obama\u2019s Democratic administration promoting Affordable Care Act subsidies and Joe Biden\u2019s Democratic administration running ads promoting COVID-19 vaccinations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe announcements are very clearly not campaign ads; President Trump is not on the ballot and there is no call to action,\u201d the White House wrote. \u201cInstead, the announcements are a reminder for Americans to love their country and know why it\u2019s worth defending \u2014 at home, at the border, and abroad.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kathleen Clark, a legal ethics professor at Washington University in St. Louis, said in her view the new ads differ from the examples the White House provided because they aren\u2019t aimed at helping members of the public benefit from specific government programs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese ads are nothing more than government propaganda, aimed at helping Trump,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Painter, who joined the Bush administration after the Medicare PSAs went out, said that ad campaign toed the line on appropriateness because it included misleading information about Medicare Part D. But he said Trump\u2019s campaign is a far more egregious violation of the statute that blocks congressionally appropriated money from being spent on publicity or propaganda.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s nothing in here about a particular policy that\u2019s at all focused,\u201d Painter said of Trump\u2019s ads. \u201cOne of them is just about the evils of the deep state. Another one of them is about communists and Marxists.\u201d<\/p>\n
In its support for the ads, the White House also referenced the administrations of President Woodrow Wilson and President Franklin D. Roosevelt, both of whom used posters, radio and film to rally the country during World Wars I and II.<\/p>\n
James Kimble, a communication professor at Seton Hall University who studies domestic propaganda, said it\u2019s true that Wilson\u2019s Democratic administration used propaganda to rally Americans. But he said most Americans no longer view its actions in a positive light.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy almost any objective measure, looking back, we find what they did pretty repulsive,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Skepticism of the campaign grows on the Hill<\/h4>\n
Top Democrats on the Senate and House appropriations committees last week\u00a0wrote to the White House\u00a0demanding the ads be taken down and requesting more information on how much money was spent to create and air them.<\/p>\n
In the days since, more than a dozen Democrats and a handful of Republicans have spoken up to further criticize the ads. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the latest ad \u201can absolute violation of what a democracy is supposed to look like.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAmericans sat down to watch football, not to be force-fed Trump\u2019s propaganda on their own dime,\u201d he said in a Senate floor speech Monday.<\/p>\n
Sen. John Kennedy, a Republican from Louisiana, said on CBS\u2019s \u201cFace the Nation\u201d on Sunday that no public official should spend public money on private ads for themselves.<\/p>\n
And Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican who lost his primary to a Trump-backed challenger, had his own harsh words for the administration on Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t worry, using taxpayer dollars to run ominous campaign ads of the President has been done before and is completely legal\u2026 in banana republics,\u201d he wrote in an X post.<\/p>\n
The Republican chairs of the Senate and House appropriation committees didn\u2019t respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
#Taxpayerfunded #proTrump #ads #violate #laws #publicity #propaganda #legal #experts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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