President Donald Trump and the White House are facing criticism after Fox aired a new taxpayer-funded campaign ad that was "paid for by the U.S. government" several times over the weekend.
The black-and-white ad uses slowed footage of Trump walking through a hallway, accompanied by his voiceover pledging that "this is the final battle." It ran during at least two of Fox’s Sunday NFL broadcasts, appearing during the Washington Commanders-Seattle Seahawks game and the Carolina Panthers-Cleveland Browns matchup, as well as on Fox News.
The latest commercial closely mirrors a video Trump posted to Truth Social in January 2024. Trump’s original version runs about six seconds longer, adding his campaign logo and a text-to number. The White House-funded version removes those elements and instead ends with the words “Paid for by the US Government” displayed on screen.
In the ad, Trump says the following, which resembles remarks he made during a 2023 Veterans Day speech:
“We will cast out the communists, Marxists, and fascists. 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."
You can see the ad below.
The White House has defended the spots by drawing a comparison to public-service campaigns launched by previous administrations, including efforts promoting Medicare, the Affordable Care Act and COVID-19 vaccination. In a statement, the administration insisted that the new ads “are very clearly not campaign ads.”
But to make matters worse, the latest spot is actually the third government-funded advertisement identified in recent days.
The first, which began airing Wednesday, uses a rapid montage of images and footage of Trump alongside audio of him attacking communism and socialism. On-screen text highlights what it presents as administration achievements, including “reigniting American manufacturing.”
A second ad shows Trump at Mount Rushmore while his voice declares, “Never before has any nation celebrated so magnificent a triumph as this one.” The White House has not provided details about how the first ad is being financed, but has defended the commercials as “public service announcements” intended to promote national pride.
The ads have sparked considerable anger online for having been paid for with taxpayer funds—and critics say they amount to nothing more than propaganda.
Democratic leaders on the congressional Appropriations Committees, which oversee federal spending, have also challenged the use of taxpayer money for the ads. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have routinely included provisions in federal funding legislation barring the government from using appropriated funds for domestic propaganda.
The latest government funding bill contains a provision stating that federal appropriations cannot be used, either directly or through private contractors, for “publicity or propaganda purposes” in the United States unless Congress has previously authorized such spending.
