White House airs another government-funded ad, this time with Trump warning of ‘final battle’

The White House launched another taxpayer-funded television ad ahead of the midterm elections, this time featuring footage of President Donald Trump walking down a hallway while audio of him saying “this is the final battle.”

“We will drive out the communists, the Marxists and the fascists. We will reject the sick political class that hates our country. We will eliminate the fake media and we will free America from these evil people once and for all,” Trump said in the ad, echoing comments he made during a Veterans Day speech in 2023.

The Trump administration gained widespread attention by releasing ads featuring the president just over a month before the November midterm elections. The White House compared the ads to previous administrations airing public service announcements on Medicare, Obamacare and promoting Covid-19 vaccination, saying in a statement that its new ads “are very clearly not campaign ads.”

The latest ad appears nearly identical to the majority of a video Trump posted on Truth Social in January 2024, during his third presidential campaign. The video on Truth Social features six additional seconds that include Trump’s campaign logo and a number to text, while “Paid for by the U.S. Government” is visible on the screen at the end of the White House-funded ad.

This is the third government-funded ad to be captured in recent days by media tracking tool AdImpact. One ad that began airing Wednesday featured quickly edited photos and videos of Trump over an audio recording of him denouncing communism and socialism, with on-screen text touting his administration’s accomplishments, such as “reviving American manufacturing.”

A second ad features video of Trump at Mount Rushmore where his voice is heard saying: “Never before has any nation celebrated a triumph as magnificent as this.” »

The White House declined to say how the first ad was financed, but defended it as part of “public service announcements” aimed at promoting national pride.

“The ad is educational and unapologetically patriotic,” a White House spokesperson said in a statement. “We should be proud of our country.”

The advert attracted the attention of government watchdog group Common Cause, which suggested it could break rules banning the use of taxpayer money for “propaganda.”

“I don’t think you have to be a lawyer and wonder why the president has to use taxpayer dollars to promote his image” on the eve of an election, Carol Evans, vice president for policy at Common Cause, told CNN.