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Trump ads paid for by US government allegedly violate anti-propaganda laws

Trump ads paid for by US government allegedly violate anti-propaganda laws

arstechnica.com 29.09.2026 22:23 3 views
FCC unlikely to stop Trump ads described as illegal taxpayer-funded propaganda.

Broadcasters should be ordered to stop running Trump commercials that appear to violate US laws, consumer advocacy group Public Citizen said today in a complaint to the Federal Communications Commission and Federal Trade Commission. The ads appear to violate laws against using taxpayer funds for propaganda and a law that restricts political activity by federal government employees, the group said. With you at my side, we will demolish the deep state.

We will expel the warmongers from our government.’ A notice at the bottom of the screen announces: ‘Paid for by the US government.’” Trump also says in the ad, “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.” It uses the same video and audio from an ad Trump used in 2024, with the main difference being that the 2024 version was paid for by Trump’s campaign committee instead of the US government. The White House claims its recent ads are public service announcements.

The updated version of the “Final Battle” ad aired during NBC’s Saturday Night Live, Fox News Sunday, and several college and NFL football games this past weekend, the Public Citizen letter said. Department of Homeland Security funds were used to pay for the ads, according to a Wall Street Journal report that said, “President Trump personally pushed for the ads and has been involved in their creation.” The other ads include one in which Trump says, “America will never be a communist country,” and another in which he says, “the United States of America is the most successful, most accomplished, most exceptional nation ever to exist in human history.”

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