President Donald Trump isn’t trying to hide the propaganda arm of his administration. In fact, he’s using taxpayer dollars to do it.
In two new ads funded by the government, the president has rallied against the perceived communist takeover of the United States. The first ad literally uses a song with a choir in the background reciting the verse "Love me."
“Together we will defeat communism, socialism and Marxism in America,” Trump says in a voiceover as the words flash across the screen.
In the second ad, Trump declares that we are in the midst of the "final battle" against the "deep state." Both ads almost certainly violate the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from politicking, as well as other federal laws.
For years, we have known
that the only person Trump cares about is himself. It is now abundantly clear that he will stop at nothing to cement his self-made mythology in history books. The question is who's planning on stopping him.
Republicans have allowed this fearmongering about the left for the past 10 years. They have nothing else to campaign off of, despite having had the White House for the last two years: our economy is tanking, there's a severe housing deficit, and the system is clearly not working for anyone except the wealthy elite. They're campaigning off of Trump as a personality because his personality is all they have to show after controlling the entire government.
Trump has a long record of spreading his own propaganda
This isn't the first time the president has tried to use his authority to sway voters ahead of the November midterm elections. It isn’t even the first time he’s created something akin to propaganda.
First, he banned MS NOW, Politico and CNN from the White House press pool because he didn't like what their journalists were saying about him (the news outlets have since been allowed back).
Then, the White House debuted Trump TV on Sept. 21, a YouTube page dedicated to 24/7 coverage of the president’s speeches, press events and previous “top moments.” Viewers say that so far, the only content has been past speeches.
Trump TV is not serving a C-SPAN-esque purpose, providing unfiltered footage of everything the president says and does. It's not there to inform citizens or spread useful information free of mainstream media filters.
It is Trump, warped by the rose-colored glasses he and the people close to him see him through. It is not filling the gaps left by his decision to bar news outlets from the press pool – it is indoctrination, through and through.
Trump is choosing to stoke fear about the left because he can't claim the economy is great when 55% of Americans believe his policies have hurt the economy, according to an NBC News poll.
He can't claim gas prices are lower when diesel is at a record high. He can't say that health care costs have gone down, or that mortgage rates have remained stagnant.
Americans clearly see all of this. Trump's approval rating heading into the midterms is 37%, the lowest of any sitting president since The Wall Street Journal began tracking approval ratings in 1990. People know he hasn't kept his promises, and they're also starting to realize that the fear tactics are all a distraction. We have a generationally unpopular president reaching for propaganda straws.
How do Republicans feel about Trump's latest vanity project?
Democrats are rightly outraged about the ads, but some Republicans are speaking out, too. It just so happens that most of the ones who are will be leaving office in 2027. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-North Carolina, compared the ad to what Hungary’s former nationalist prime minister would do.
"It’s not like they need a GoFundMe page to have the dollars to do that sort of ad and they could do it,” Tillis told The Hill on Sept. 24. “But using taxpayer dollars, it feels like Viktor Orbán.”
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Kentucky, has also spoken out against the ads. Both men are lame duck members of Congress, finally free to speak their minds, who have been frequent critics of the president in recent months.
The other Republican to speak out is Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana, whose term doesn't end until 2029.
It’s clear by now that the GOP is scared to go against the president, even though Republican leaders would lose their minds if a Democrat released a similar political ad this close to the midterm elections. In fact, the right has been claiming that former President Joe Biden purged hundreds of reporters from the White House in 2023, a statement that has been debunked by journalists.
I understand that Republicans must think about the November elections and Trump’s continued popularity among their base. Some of these politicians might not even see the big deal with the U.S. government disavowing socialism and communism. But when our elected leaders tell us how we should think and feel about any number of issues, the country is no better than the authoritarian regimes we condemn.
Everything Trump is doing – controlling which reporters are in the White House press pool, creating ads focused on fighting socialism during the rise of Democratic Socialists of America candidates in the United States – is so that he is the only one in control of the narrative.
While it’s good that Democrats are speaking up, Republicans must do the same if they care about our country.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Sara Pequeño on Bluesky: @sarapequeno.bsky.social
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump's ad campaign is pure propaganda. You're paying for it | Opinion
