WASHINGTON — A newly created federal Office of Public Affection said Sunday that a series of government-funded television spots featuring President Donald Trump are public service announcements and not campaign advertising, because the man in them “is not a candidate for anything, so there is nothing for the ads to be campaigning for, except him.”
The spots, which began airing in September during the midterm campaign season, carry the disclaimer “Paid for by the U.S. Government.” One, a 30-second black-and-white video of Trump walking down a hallway over audio of him warning about “the deep state,” “globalists,” and “warmongers,” previously ran in 2023 with the tagline “Paid for by Donald J. Trump for President 2024, Inc.” Another is set to a song whose chorus repeats the words “love me,” over a montage of the president and on-screen text including “largest tax cuts in history.” The song was used without its writer’s approval, according to published reports. A third features Mount Rushmore.
Ad-tracking data showed one of the spots had cost the government nearly $920,000 in airtime by late September. Federal spending laws bar the use of appropriated money for “publicity or propaganda.” A watchdog group has filed complaints with the Government Accountability Office and the Office of Special Counsel, and several Republican senators have publicly called the ads inappropriate. The White House has described them as public service announcements.
“A public service announcement tells the public something it needs to know. The public needs to know to love him,” said Dana Whitcomb, the office’s acting director, at a briefing held in front of a backdrop that read “PATRIOTISM ISN’T PERSONAL.” “Smoking, seat belts, loving him. These are the three pillars.”
Whitcomb said the disclaimer change “took four seconds” and was the office’s proudest achievement. “We removed the words ‘Donald J. Trump for President 2024, Inc.’ and replaced them with ’the U.S. Government,’” she said. “If you think about it, that’s not a change at all. It’s a promotion.”
Asked whether the ads could be considered campaign material in a campaign season, Whitcomb said the office had studied the question carefully. “The president is not on the ballot this year, so by definition any ad about him is not about the campaign,” she said. “It is about everyone who is on the ballot, standing near him. That’s different. That’s a group photo.”
The office, which has 41 employees and a mission statement consisting of the single word “Please,” was established in August under a reorganization that Whitcomb declined to describe beyond saying it was “funded by love, and by a reprogramming.” Its ethics officer, she said, reviews each spot by watching it twice “and then humming.”
Asked about the song, Whitcomb said the office had considered other music but found that “every other song is about someone else.”
Dr. Chad Brickhouse, a senior fellow at the Institute for Common Sense, said the Institute had concluded that the ads could not be propaganda because “propaganda is when the government tells you what to think, and this is the government telling you what to feel, which is totally different.” He was reached by phone in a car with the radio on, where, he said, one of the spots was playing. “There it is,” he said. “Beautiful. Very informative. I feel informed.”
Brickhouse added that the Institute “has always opposed wasteful government spending,” and that the ads were “not spending, they’re an investment in affection, which is the best-performing asset class in the country right now.”
Dr. Marjorie Teller, director of the Center for Measured Outcomes, which has catalogued federal public service announcements since 1994, said the spots were without precedent in her data. “We have 3,100 government PSAs on file. They ask Americans to buckle up, prevent forest fires, and eat vegetables,” Teller said. “This is the first one that asks Americans to love the person making the announcement. In second place is a 1997 spot in which a cartoon owl asks viewers not to litter, and even the owl did not ask to be loved.”
A supporter interviewed outside a Virginia sports bar, where one of the spots aired during a football game, said he saw no problem. “He’s not running, so it’s not a campaign ad. That’s just logic,” said Kurt Ellison, 56, a regional flooring salesman. “It’s like when I take out an ad for my store. That’s not an ad for me. It’s for the floors. The floors just happen to have my face on them.”
Ellison said he had paid for his own ads himself. Asked whether the government should pay for them, he said, “If it’s a public service. Floors are a public service.”
The Office of Public Affection said it plans to expand the campaign through the fall, including a new 60-second spot titled “Patriotism,” which consists of the president looking directly into the camera for 58 seconds before the words “Paid for by You” appear on screen. Whitcomb said the closing line had tested well. “People like being included,” she said.