Trump says he will pay for ‘Patriotic Ads’ himself after facing backlash from Democrats
President Trump on Monday said he will pay for the controversial “Patriotic Ads” after backlash mounted in response to the ads being funded by taxpayers.
“The Radical Left is upset with the fact that I am taking Ads, which I consider to be a positive promotion for our Great U.S.A., and paying for them with U.S.A. money,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“This is a rather standard thing to do but, rather than doing that, although nothing will make them happy, I have decided to do the Patriotic Ads, among others, and pay for them myself, and with money I raised for MAGA, Inc.,” the president added.
The $20-million ad campaign features Trump in a voiceover claiming the U.S. will defeat socialism and communism while also saying the country is “reigniting American manufacturing” under his presidency.
Trump’s voice says he and his followers “will liberate America from these villains once and for all,” referring to the press and his political opponents, as “Love Me” by JMSN, the moniker of singer Christian Berishaj, plays in the background.
The ads are not intended for any campaign, as they do not promote any specific candidate or political party. Trump has previously pushed back against the criticism by saying that they are fair game for not outwardly supporting him, claiming that they are for the “spirit of the country.”
Vice President Vance also defended the ads, saying that there’s a history where the federal government has used tax dollars to promote government actions, using the Obama administration’s ads for the Affordable Care Act as an example. Trump halted that effort at the start of his first term.
“It’s part of actually, I think, living in a constitutional republic,” Vance told reporters Monday. “You have to be honest with the American people about what you’re doing, about what’s going on.”
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) head Brendan Carr, a Trump ally, also dismissed concerns about the ads and called them “normal course public service announcements that you see all the time.”
“There’s nothing in there that strikes me as out of the ordinary or that would merit any sort of FCC review,” Carr added. “There are groups on the left that have long worked and pushed to weaponize the FCC’s license renewal process. I’m sure they’ll do it again in the future. Again with respect to these, they are normal PSAs that don’t raise any red flags.”
Carr has launched investigations into several media companies with news and entertainment divisions that publish reporting and commentary critical of Trump.
Some Democrats have called on the U.S. Government Accountability Office to investigate the ads. A letter sent by Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and George Whitesides (D-Calif.) asked why tax money going to the federal government is paying for “desperate preelection propaganda.”
The letter accuses the ads of violating several laws, including the Consolidated Appropriations Act and the Antideficiency Act.
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