You’re paying for Trump’s campaign ads—and Fox News is cashing in
President Donald Trump is using taxpayer dollars to finance a new ad meant to stop the blue wave that’s barreling toward Republican candidates in this fall’s midterm elections.
The ad features a quick-cut montage of Trump photos and videos set to the song “Love Me” by JMSN. JMSN told Politico that he has not authorized the use of his song and is “looking for a lawyer now in order to see what our options are and how to proceed.”
The ad features onscreen text that reads “America will never be a communist country,” ironically positioned over a photo of Trump greeting Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is coincidentally the head of the Chinese Communist Party and the most prominent communist leader in the entire world.
Republicans have been falsely attacking Democrats as pro-communist, reviving an old smear as the GOP faces plummeting public support.
At the end of the ad, the text notes that the campaign ad is “Paid for by the U.S. Government.”
“This is an astonishing misuse of public resources in the campaign context, one of the most blatant I’ve ever seen,” Daniel Weiner, former senior legal counsel for the Federal Election Commission and a director at the nonprofit Brennan Center For Justice, told The Wall Street Journal.
“This may be felony criminal theft and conversion of government property for political campaign purposes,” wrote Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top-ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. “18 U.S.C. § 1641. 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.”
Related | Wait, Kristi Noem spent how much on makeup and … horses?!
Not only are tax dollars being used for the campaign ad, but the money for the ad purchase is going to Trump’s closest media allies. The ad aired on Fox News Channel and Newsmax, both partisan “news” outlets closely in sync with the Republican Party and the conservative movement.
Trump is fond of using taxpayer-funded venues and resources for clearly partisan purposes, promoting himself and his party.
Back in 2020 the Republican National Convention was literally held on the grounds of the White House, which is owned by the American taxpayers. The misuse of resources was not enough to stave off Trump’s eventual loss to President Joe Biden.
More recently, former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem spent at least $220 million in taxpayer funds for a public relations campaign promoting herself and the administration’s anti-immigrant agenda.
Trump’s newest ad is ultimately a sign of Republican worry about how this year’s elections will go. The president and his party are unpopular, and Republican candidates are increasingly trying to distance themselves from the administration to save their political skin.
This time, taxpayers are footing a bill that should be on the Republican Party’s tab.
We’ll get straight to the point: The financial hardships that Daily Kos is facing this year are tough.
We continue to be paywall-free. We continue to be supported by our readers, not billionaires or corporations. But we need to bring in more revenue. We are leaning on our community more than ever to help make ends meet.
