‘Dangerous for Democracy’: White House Airs More Pro-Trump Propaganda on Taxpayer Dime
“The president and his administration have gone from breaking the law to trampling it,” said a former White House special counsel.
US President Donald Trump speaks on stage on the first day of the Republican midterm convention on September 9, 2026 in Dallas, Texas.
(Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
Jake Johnson
Sep 28, 2026
COMMON DREAMS
The White House recycled material from President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign for a new taxpayer-funded ad that aired nationwide this past weekend, just weeks before the high-stakes November midterms.
The 30-second black-and-white ad features Trump walking down a hallway to audio of him vowing to “demolish the deep state” and “expel the warmongers from our government,” even as the president wages an illegal and deeply unpopular war on Iran that has killed thousands and driven up prices at home and around the world. During the final 10 seconds of the ad, white text appears at the bottom of the screen stating, “Paid for by the US government.”
The ad is just the latest taxpayer-funded, explicitly pro-Trump spot that the White House has launched in recent days, prompting alarm from lawmakers and government watchdog organizations who say the administration is using public funds to flood airwaves with the president’s campaign ads shortly before an election.
Watch the newly aired ad:
Richard Painter, who served as the White House’s chief ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush administration, said the taxpayer-funded campaign ads “could be an impeachable offense,” noting that “Congress has expressly prohibited government-sponsored political propaganda, which is dangerous for democracy.”
The federal government appears to have spent more than $1 million on pro-Trump ads in recent days, The New York Times reported on Sunday, citing an estimate from AdImpact.
Last week, as Common Dreams reported, the White House launched a taxpayer-funded ad in which Trump declares that “America will never be a communist country” and promotes tax cuts he signed into law, delivering a massive windfall to the rich and large corporations.
Norm Eisen, former White House special counsel for ethics and government reform, told the Times on Sunday that “the president and his administration have gone from breaking the law to trampling it.”
“The prior ad was bad enough,” said Eisen, “but this one openly repurposes prior political conduct.”
US Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) wrote on social media that Republicans shouldn’t be taken seriously when they claim to care about “waste, fraud, and abuse” as the president and leader of their party runs campaign ads with taxpayer money.
“What a cult this party has become,” Murphy added.
Complaint Demands Broadcasters Stop Airing Trump’s Illegal Taxpayer-Funded Ads
“This administration’s repeated and flagrant violations of the law, including the Hatch Act, are an affront to taxpayers and our democracy.”
Public Citizen is urging regulators and broadcasters to pull President Donald Trump’s unlawful taxpayer-funded campaign advertisements off the air. The third one, declaring a “final battle,” resembles one of his 2024 campaign ads.
(Image: screen grab/US government via AdImact)
Jessica Corbett
Sep 29, 2026
COMMON DREAMS
The watchdog group Public Citizen this week filed a pair of complaints urging regulators and broadcasters to pull President Donald Trump’s unlawful taxpayer-funded campaign advertisements off the air and demanding a federal investigation into them.
In recent weeks, amid mounting speculation that Republicans could lose their congressional majorities in the November midterm election, television stations have aired short videos that the White House claims are “public service announcements” but which a range of critics contend are obvious campaign ads—and illegal, as they clearly state they are “paid for by the US government.”
Public Citizen’s Tuesday complaint to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and broadcasters highlights that “at least three campaign ads, paid for by taxpayer dollars, appear to violate the federal law against using taxpayer funds to finance propaganda (5 USC §3107) and related provisions of the appropriations laws as well as the Hatch Act (5 USC §7324).”
While “broadcast stations are strictly prohibited from censoring or rejecting ads sponsored by legally qualified political candidates,” the complaint notes, they also “may be held liable for airing any advertisement that is in violation of federal law,” which “explicitly prohibits using appropriated public funds for government propaganda, self-aggrandizement, or partisan political advertising.”
The group urges the FCC and FTC “to direct broadcasters to stop broadcasting these apparently illegal campaign advertisements and call on individual broadcasters to cease airing the campaign advertisements,” emphasizing the responsibility of both agencies and broadcasters “to keep the airwaves fair and honest and operate in the ‘public interest, convenience, and necessity.’”
The first ad, initially posted to the White House YouTube account earlier this month, features Trump pledging to “defeat communism, socialism, and Marxism, in America,” and the song “Love Me” by JMSN, who did not sign off on its use. The second one aired Friday and includes clips from the president’s Fourth of July weekend speech at Mount Rushmore. A third, resembling one of Trump’s 2024 campaign ads, was played during “Saturday Night Live,” “Fox News Sunday,” and several football games.
The administration’s decision to reject widespread criticism and air yet another “piece of taxpayer-funded political propaganda during the mass-viewing moment of Sunday football is appalling and alarming,” declared Public Citizen co-president Lisa Gilbert. “These illegal ads should immediately be pulled from the air, and the White House’s many apparent violations of the law should be investigated.”
After the first ad, Public Citizen submitted a complaint to the US Office of Special Counsel (OSC) and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) Forensic Audits and Investigative Service. The group sent another on Monday, arguing that the new “Final Battle” ad is a “brazen” violation of federal law that “doesn’t even mention a pending government action. It simply tries to stir up hysteria among voters and depicts Trump as a great hero working to save the nation from grave threats.”
“Like the other previous two campaign advertisements Trump and the White House are billing to taxpayers, these ads are designed to boost the character of Donald Trump, generally void of any legitimate government purpose, target the voting public shortly before the 2026 midterm elections, and constitute violations of the law against using government resources for propaganda purposes and the Hatch Act,” the group continued.
“Public Citizen is once again writing your offices requesting an investigation into who produced these ads and at what cost to taxpayers, and to take appropriate remedial actions to enforce the federal law,” the organization added.
Leading Democrats in the US Senate and House of Representatives said Monday that the White House used funding allocated for US Customs and Border Protection to pay for the ads. Government ethics experts, lawmakers, and other critics have ripped the ads, with some even pointing to them as further evidence that Trump should be impeached a historic third time.
“This administration’s repeated and flagrant violations of the law, including the Hatch Act, are an affront to taxpayers and our democracy,” said Craig Holman, a government ethics expert with Public Citizen. “The FCC and other oversight agencies are charged with ensuring this type of abuse of taxpayer funds does not happen. But that system only works if they take action.”
“So your hosts are on air all day saying this is illegal while you are taking the money and running the ads? Just gross,” said one MS NOW critic.
President Donald Trump appears in a taxpayer-funded ad that has aired on major cable news networks..
(Image: screenshot by US government via AdImact)
Brad Reed
Oct 01, 2026
COMMON DREAMS
CNN and MS NOW are both airing taxpayer-funded ads that promote President Donald Trump, who last month tried to ban the cable news networks from White House grounds.
As The Washington Post reported on Wednesday, two pro-Trump ads have aired on MS NOW and CNN this week in select markets, even though legal experts and government watchdogs say the ads violate laws prohibiting taxpayer funds for political propaganda.
In a statement provided to the Post, MS NOW spokesperson Richard Hudock defended the decision to run the ads.
“We know the size, engagement, and influence of the MS NOW audience, and apparently the White House does, too,” said Hudock. “The decision to spend taxpayer dollars to reach our audience speaks for itself.”
The MS NOW spokesperson also emphasized that “accepting an advertisement is not an endorsement of its message, and purchasing airtime will never purchase favorable coverage.”
This justification drew an angry rebuke from Ron Filipkowski, editor-in-chief of MeidasTouch.
“This is just despicable by MS NOW, which has accepted stolen taxpayers dollars for 38 illegal ads,” Filipkowski wrote in a Thursday social media post. “Give me a break with this bullshit statement too. So your hosts are on air all day saying this is illegal while you are taking the money and running the ads? Just gross.”
According to a Wednesday report from Status, some MS NOW insiders are “pissed” about the decision to air the Trump ads, with some noting that the network’s viewers will “hate” seeing them.
Government watchdog Public Citizen on Tuesday filed complaints with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) demanding that the government-funded Trump ads be taken off the air.
However, Trump-appointed Trump FCC Chairman Brendan Carr told reporters on Wednesday that he is not planning any investigation into the ads, which he described as “public service announcements” despite the fact that they feature audio of the president personally vowing to “defeat communism, socialism, and Marxism in America.”
“I don’t think there’s anything unique or different about it,” said Carr. “There’s nothing in there that strikes me that merit any sort of FCC review.”
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