Trump’s Public Service Announcement: ‘Love Me’
· The Atlantic
The campaign-style ad starts with grainy video footage of President Trump, followed by a clearer look at his red-bathed profile, as his voice promises: “Together we will defeat communism, socialism, and Marxism in America.” Then comes the strobe-style rapid display of images of the president. A pause. Then a dozen more Trumps. The pattern repeats several times. There are plugs for some of his priorities—such as cutting taxes and defending police officers—but one message stays on the screen for fully half of the 30-second commercial: America will never be a communist country.
Throughout, an R&B song plays in the background, with falsetto voices singing, over and over: “Love me … Love me … Love me …” At the end comes this: “Paid for by the U.S. Government.”
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Huh?
If the use of taxpayer dollars seems odd—and it should—the explanation that the White House gave me is even more bizarre. No one would say anything with their name attached, but a White House spokesperson told me that the new ad, which began airing this week, is a public service announcement that is “educational and unapologetically patriotic.” A second White House official told me that the ad is “clearly not political,” an assertion that appears intended to provide legal cover. I also received a list of supposedly comparable PSAs from past presidents: George W. Bush spent federal dollars urging the youth of America not to do drugs. Joe Biden had a campaign to encourage the public to get their COVID vaccines. Franklin D. Roosevelt produced radio programs and posters supporting World War II. And now Trump has his own announcement of sorts: “Love me … Love me … Love me …”
“These public service announcements are about reminding Americans to love their country and understand what makes it worth defending, at home, at our borders, and abroad,” the White House spokesperson told me in a statement.
[Read: Trump plans to buy midterm ads about his own record ]
The White House would not answer my other questions, including how much money is being spent on these “public service announcements,” which government account is being used to fund them, and who produced the spot. It is unclear how much money the government has spent on these ads and in how many places, but one advertising tracker I spoke with said that it is airing in several major markets. It’s much easier to track such details for political ads because campaigns and other groups are required to file reports with the FCC. The “Love Me” spot aired last night during “Jesse Watters Primetime” on Fox News, and it has also been seen on Newsmax.
The ad flashes text in big red letters spelling out Trump’s alleged accomplishments: Largest tax cuts in history, reigniting American manufacturing, and defend law and order and police. At the end, the voice of Dana White, the UFC president, comes on as images of military planes fly overhead. “He is the toughest, most resilient person that I’ve ever met and nothing is going to stop him from fighting so hard for the country that he loves,” White says. A shorter version of the ad appeared on the White House’s official YouTube page nearly two weeks ago.
Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, a Republican, compared the ad to something that a far-right former Hungarian prime minister would attempt. “It’s not like they need a GoFundMe page to have the dollars to do that sort of ad, and they could do it,” he told reporters. “But using taxpayer dollars, it feels like Viktor Orbán.” Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said that the ad appeared to violate federal law. “It is blatantly unethical under numerous federal ethics provisions proscribing the use of government resources for political campaigns,” he wrote on social media.
Senator Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, who is poised to become the top Democrat on a key oversight committee, sent a letter today to Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, with detailed questions about the cost, source of funds, and legal basis for the spot. “The advertisement does not have a clear official government purpose and appears to run afoul of federal prohibitions against the use of appropriated funds,” she wrote. Top Democratic appropriators also wrote to demand the ad be taken down immediately: “This is the sort of government propaganda one might expect in North Korea, not the United States of America.”
Donald Sherman, the president of the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told me it’s “certainly odd” and unlike anything he has seen before. “It goes out of its way, it seems, to look and feel like propaganda as opposed to something more substantive,” he said.
[Read: The watchdogs are barking themselves hoarse]
Sherman said the ad likely does not violate the Hatch Act, which limits political activities for executive branch employees but exempts the president. It more likely breaches federal appropriations laws, Sherman said, that restrict federal agencies from using taxpayer money for “publicity or propaganda.” Any enforcement would come from the Government Accountability Office, which operates at the request of congressional committees that are presently controlled by Republicans. A GAO spokesperson told me late this afternoon the office had not received any requests for decisions on the matter.
“That’s the rub!” Sherman said. “This video is directed at benefiting the current majority in Congress, and the current majority in Congress has repeatedly refrained from reining in the current president’s corruption and behavior. I’m not holding my breath for them to do anything about it.”
Although I received few answers from the White House, I did receive some from JMSN, pronounced “Jameson,” the Albanian American artist behind the song used in the ad. He said in an emailed statement that he did not authorize the use of his music, which has become a popular soundtrack on social media for users editing together their own photos. “I am looking for a lawyer now in order to see what our options are and how to proceed,” he said. “I have never been in this situation before, so need help in navigating something of this magnitude.”