Trump stirs new storm by posing as strongman in taxpayer-funded video

Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP

It’s Donald Trump as he wants America to see him.

This is the president as a relentless, square-jawed strongman, in unambiguous monochrome, in a video featuring an echoing voice track in which he vows “ a final battle ” against communists, the deep state and “fake news” media.

But the most provocative aspect of the 30-second spot that aired during NFL broadcasts Sunday is the tagline: “Paid for by the U.S. Government.”

This raises key questions.

Is the video, similar to one Trump posted on social media during his 2024 campaign, a legitimate use of public money, in what the White House says is a public service announcement? Or does it represent another blow to good governance by a president who recognizes few limits on his power? In this instance, using taxpayer funds — inevitably including those of citizens who oppose his agenda — for a hyper-political message pre-midterm election message?

Democrats have raised alarm at recent similar videos that also used taxpayer cash. Consumer advocacy group Public Citizen filed a complaint with government ethics watchdogs. And one Republican senator, John Kennedy of Louisiana, told CBS News’ “Face the Nation” Sunday that no public official should spend public money on “private ads for themselves.”

A supporter of the White House position might argue there is some subjectivity in what constitutes a political ad as distinct from a video that purportedly seeks to highlight higher national interests. But this controversy is playing out in an administration that has repeatedly challenged norms and taboos regarding politics and nonpartisan governance. And there will be deep skepticism over whether a president who has purged inspectors general , ethics officials and civil servants from his own government cares about such concerns.

The furor is a classic example of provocative behavior Trump uses to draw establishment forces into showdowns that bolster his image as an insurgent, a move that was instrumental to his two presidential election triumphs. At times, this seems like trolling for trolling’s sake. But it feeds a narrative that he’s under perpetual attack from a sinister deep state and that only strongman leadership by Trump can save the nation. The idea that the spot is deliberately provocative is bolstered by the fact that Trump, with a war chest worth hundreds of millions of dollars, doesn’t need to use taxpayer cash.

The timing also cannot be ignored: five weeks ahead of congressional elections in which Republicans fear defeat in the House and the Senate. The video’s hero narrative is exactly the kind of messaging that might drive out quintessential Trump voters whom the GOP needs to turn out in droves, even when Trump isn’t formally heading midterm tickets.

This imagery of Trump as an omnipotent figure also contrasts sharply with his political fortunes as polls show Americans rejecting his policies on the economy, the war in Iran and his refusal to regulate artificial intelligence as lame duck-status beckons.

Ryan Murphy/AFP/Getty Images

The White House said in a statement to CNN — which was similar to its response to previous videos — that 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.” It added that “the ad is educational and unapologetically patriotic. We should be proud of our country.”

The White House also argued that since Trump is not on the ballot in the midterms, the videos are not political. Yet the president implored supporters at his “midterm convention” in Texas to “pretend that I’m on the ballot.” White House Communications Director Steven Cheung wrote on X: “don’t let the Fake News get away with their lies about our epic Public Service Announcements that have been running on tv.”

The administration listed specific examples of previous public service advertisements promoted by presidents, including George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt.

The semantic debate on Trump’s ad will focus however on whether the supposed crisis he invokes — of a land under siege from Marxists, globalists and “fake news” — bears any resemblance to threats from Covid-19 in the case of a Biden video or Nazis and Japanese imperialism in FDR’s material.

Biden’s pandemic video was not overtly political — in trying to get shots in arms to end the crisis — but the entire issue of the government’s response was drawn into the treacherous politics of the global health emergency.

The comparison to FDR’s Office of War Information seems more obviously tenuous. The body was formed in June 1942 to promote the status and progress of the World War II effort and the US government’s policies. By that time, the US had been attacked at Pearl Harbor. The US Navy had been in action in the Pacific War and American bombers would soon be over Nazi Germany, but the comparison to the World War II crisis is questionable.

New controversy over Trump’s video also recalls a storm over tens of thousands of dollars in taxpayer funds spent on a campaign showcasing former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem shortly before she left office, according to invoices seen by CNN.

The idea that America is in peril is at the core of the Trump’s midterm election campaign and Republican warnings that socialists and communists are plotting a takeover. While democratic socialists are increasingly vocal in the Democratic coalition, it is ahistorical to directly compare them to Soviet totalitarians.

In any case, Trump just spent three days hosting the world’s most powerful communist, Chinese leader Xi Jinping , at a state visit, even if modern-day Chinese communism is most defined by the authoritarian nature of the creed rather than collectivist economics.

Trump’s stark video, in which he walks unsmilingly toward the camera, will also deepen disquiet among critics of his authoritarian imagery. As will the White House statement telling citizens what they “should” be proud about. The video also comes at a moment when the administration is challenging constitutional rights and freedoms enjoyed by the press — and every American — under the First Amendment. Key legal rulings are pending over the White House’s canceling of permanent entry passes for three media organizations, following a judge’s temporary suspension of the ban, and the administration’s blocking of CNN from a weekend pool rotation.

Top Democratic appropriators in Congress wrote to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles last week demanding that a previous Trump video be withdrawn and warning that the use of taxpayer funds was unlawful.

“This is the sort of government propaganda one might expect in North Korea, not the United States of America, and it is an egregious and utterly illegal misuse of Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars,” read the letter , signed by lawmakers including Washington Sen. Patty Murray, Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed, Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro and Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer. They wrote the video was a “blatant violation” of Section 718 of Division E of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2026, which forbids federal funds from supporting propaganda, and was also an apparent violation of other federal ethics laws, including the Hatch Act.

Public Citizen lodged a complaint with the Government Accountability Office and the US Office of the Special Counsel contending that two previous Trump videos are an “affront to taxpayers and our democracy.”

But as always with the current administration, the question will be whether such questions are taken seriously within government. If Democrats win congressional majorities in the midterms, Trump’s recent ads may be drawn into an aggressive regime of oversight and investigations. But one lesson of the Trump era is that constraints on presidential power may not mean much when the executive makes a conscious decision to ignore historic norms around the office. And it would not be surprising if future presidents, including Democrats, exploit openings the 47th president forged.

朱莉娅·德马雷·尼金森/美联社

这就是唐纳德·特朗普希望美国民众看到的他。

这是总统的形象，他是一位冷酷无情、棱角分明的强人，画面采用清晰的黑白风格，视频中配有回声般的旁白，他誓言要与共产主义者、深层政府和“假新闻”媒体进行“最后的决战”。

但周日 NFL 转播期间播出的这则 30 秒广告中最具争议性的是它的标语：“由美国政府出资”。

这引发了一些关键问题。

这段视频与特朗普在2024年竞选期间发布在社交媒体上的视频类似，白宫称其为公益宣传片，那么它是否属于合法使用公共资金？或者，这是否又一次体现了这位几乎不承认自身权力限制的总统对良好治理的破坏？这一次，他动用了纳税人的钱——其中必然包括反对他政策的公民的钱——在期中选举前夕发布高度政治化的信息？

民主党人对近期类似视频也使用了纳税人的钱表示担忧。消费者权益倡导组织“公众公民”（Public Citizen）已向政府道德监督机构提出申诉。路易斯安那州共和党参议员约翰·肯尼迪周日在哥伦比亚广播公司新闻节目“面对国家”（Face the Nation）中表示，任何公职人员都不应该将公款用于“为自己做私人广告”。

白宫立场的支持者可能会辩称，政治广告与旨在凸显更高国家利益的视频之间存在一定的主观性。但这场争议正值本届政府屡次挑战政治和无党派治理的规范与禁忌之际。人们不禁要问，一位曾清洗政府监察长、道德官员和公务员的总统，是否真的关心这些问题。

这场风波是特朗普惯用的挑衅手段，他以此激怒建制派，迫使他们与自己对抗，从而巩固其“挑战者”形象。这一策略在他两次总统大选中都发挥了关键作用。有时，这看起来像是为了挑衅而挑衅。但这却强化了一种叙事：他正遭受来自一个阴险的“深层政府”的持续攻击，只有特朗普的强人领导才能拯救国家。特朗普拥有数亿美元的竞选资金，根本不需要动用纳税人的钱，这一事实也进一步佐证了这则广告是故意挑衅的说法。

时机也不容忽视：距离共和党担心在众议院和参议院都失利的国会选举还有五周。这段视频的英雄叙事手法，恰恰是共和党所需要的那种可能会赶走特朗普铁杆支持者的宣传策略，而这些支持者正是共和党需要大量投票的群体，即便特朗普并未正式成为中期选举的候选人。

特朗普被描绘成无所不能的人物，这与他的政治命运形成了鲜明对比。民调显示，随着他即将卸任，美国民众对他在经济、伊朗战争以及拒绝监管人工智能方面的政策表示反对。

Ryan Murphy/AFP/Getty Images

白宫在一份发给CNN的声明中表示——其回应与之前的视频类似——这些“公益广告旨在提醒美国民众热爱自己的国家，并理解捍卫国家的意义所在，无论是在国内、边境还是国外。”声明还补充道，“这则广告具有教育意义，并且毫不掩饰地表达了爱国情怀。我们应该为我们的国家感到自豪。”

白宫还辩称，由于特朗普并未参加中期选举，这些视频不涉及政治。然而，总统在德克萨斯州举行的“中期选举大会”上恳求支持者“假装我的名字在选票上”。白宫通讯主任史蒂文·张在X网站上写道：“别让假新闻媒体的谎言蒙蔽了双眼，他们捏造了我们那些在电视上播放的精彩公益广告。”

该政府列举了多位总统（包括乔治·W·布什、巴拉克·奥巴马、乔·拜登、伍德罗·威尔逊和富兰克林·罗斯福）此前推广的公益广告的具体例子。

然而，关于特朗普广告的语义辩论将集中在他所援引的所谓危机——一个受到马克思主义者、全球主义者和“假新闻”围攻的国家——是否与拜登视频中新冠疫情的威胁，或罗斯福宣传材料中纳粹和日本帝国主义的威胁有任何相似之处。

拜登的疫情应对视频虽然没有明显的政治色彩——旨在通过注射疫苗来结束危机——但政府应对疫情的整个问题都被卷入了这场全球卫生紧急事件的险恶政治之中。

将之与罗斯福总统的战时信息办公室相提并论显然站不住脚。该机构成立于1942年6月，旨在宣传二战的进展和美国政府的政策。当时，美国已遭受珍珠港袭击，美国海军也已投入太平洋战争，美国轰炸机也即将飞越纳粹德国上空，但将其与二战危机相提并论仍然值得商榷。

特朗普的视频引发的新争议也让人想起此前一场风波，据 CNN 看到的发票显示，数万美元的纳税人资金被用于宣传前国土安全部长克里斯蒂·诺姆，而诺姆当时即将卸任。

美国正处于危难之中，这一观点是特朗普中期选举竞选活动的核心，也是共和党警告社会主义者和共产主义者正密谋夺权的论调。虽然民主社会主义者在民主党联盟中的声音日益高涨，但将他们直接与苏联极权主义者相提并论是脱离历史事实的。

无论如何，特朗普刚刚接待了世界上最有权势的共产主义者——中国领导人习近平，对他进行了为期三天的国事访问，尽管现代中国共产主义最显著的特征是其信条的威权性质，而不是集体主义经济。

特朗普这段冷峻的视频，他面无表情地走向镜头，无疑会加剧批评者对其威权形象的不满。白宫随后发表的声明，告诉民众他们“应该”为哪些方面感到自豪，也会起到同样的作用。此外，这段视频发布之际，正值本届政府挑战新闻界——以及每一位美国公民——根据宪法第一修正案所享有的宪法权利和自由之时。此前，一位法官曾暂时中止了对三家媒体机构的永久入境许可禁令，但白宫随后又取消了这些机构的入境许可。与此同时，政府还阻止了CNN参与周末的轮值记者活动，这些事件的关键法律裁决仍在等待中。

上周，国会民主党拨款委员会高层致信白宫幕僚长苏西·威尔斯，要求撤回特朗普此前发布的一段视频，并警告称使用纳税人资金是非法的。

“这种政府宣传手法在朝鲜才会出现，而不是在美国，这是对美国民众辛辛苦苦挣来的税款的公然滥用，而且完全非法。”这封由包括华盛顿州参议员帕蒂·默里、罗德岛州参议员杰克·里德、康涅狄格州众议员罗莎·德劳罗和马里兰州众议员斯坦尼·霍耶在内的多位议员联署的信中写道。他们指出，这段视频“公然违反”了2026年综合拨款法案E部分第718条的规定，该条款禁止联邦资金用于宣传活动，而且显然也违反了其他联邦道德法律，包括《哈奇法案》。

公众公民组织向政府问责局和美国特别检察官办公室提出申诉，称特朗普之前的两段视频“是对纳税人和我们民主的侮辱”。

但正如本届政府一贯的做法，问题在于政府内部是否会认真对待这些问题。如果民主党在中期选举中赢得国会多数席位，特朗普近期的竞选广告可能会引发一场严厉的监督和调查。但特朗普时代的一个教训是，当总统有意无视围绕总统职位的历史惯例时，对总统权力的限制可能意义不大。如果未来的总统，包括民主党人，利用这位第47任总统留下的漏洞，也并不令人意外。