‘God Made Trump’ and ‘UFC’: Trump administration has more ads coming from taxpayer-funded campaign

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The Trump administration has created at least 13 campaign-style ads as part of its controversial taxpayer-funded, multi-million-dollar effort to promote President Donald Trump and his policies.

Yet-to-be-aired spots include a trio of ads highlighting the US military and operations in Iran and Venezuela, one called “God Made Trump” and another recapping the UFC fight he hosted at the White House. Republicans and Democrats alike have questioned the wisdom of spending so much taxpayer money on the ads, which the White House has defended as public service announcements.

CNN has obtained clips of 12 ads, which range from 15 seconds to three minutes long, including two that have already aired. They appear in a Dropbox account — which was shared with CNN — run by LMD, the agency that has been given the government contract for the ad buys. Each ends with “Paid for by the U.S. Government” at the bottom of the screen. Another ad that is not in the Dropbox account, “Final Battle,” has also aired in recent weeks.

The three ads that have already aired have appeared on TV networks including CBS, CNN, MS NOW, Fox News and Fox. It’s not clear if all of the ads will air on television or digital platforms.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

While each of the ads has a different theme, many of them include imagery of the president and audio with positive reviews from news reports, which is likely to intensify criticism that the campaign is using taxpayer dollars to help Trump personally. They also include patriotic images — including the cap toss at a military graduation, fireworks over Mount Rushmore and military flyovers.

First lady Melania Trump, who has been a rare presence at the White House during the president’s second term, is featured in many of the ads. There are also images from Trump’s reciprocal tariff announcement, the border wall, his escalator presidential-campaign announcement and the tongue-in-cheek framed photograph of an auto pen signifying former President Joe Biden on Trump’s “Presidential Walk of Fame.”

CNN previously reported that Trump has personally driven the video ads, including helping select the imagery and videos used, according to a source familiar with the matter. Two Trump advisers familiar with the ads said that they were being created in-house by the White House video team — which is part of the communications team, responsible for the administration’s public messaging — though at least one of them was produced by a pro-Trump meme group.

The ads that have aired so far have spurred widespread condemnation, even as the White House indicates it plans to ramp up its efforts. Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, said in a post on X that the ads “may be felony criminal theft and conversion of government property for political campaign purposes.” If Democrats win control of the House next year, he’ll gain congressional subpoena power.

Even some Republicans have criticized the ad campaign.

“Look, if you want to spend money out of your super PAC or other campaign account to communicate that message, that’s fine. It’s not an appropriate PSA. It’s just not, you know, it’s not how we should be spending taxpayer dollars,” said Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina.

Sen. John Cornyn of Texas has said “no” the ads are not an appropriate use of taxpayer dollars. “It’s not even a close question.”

The “UFC 250” ad heavily promotes the company and the June fight that Trump hosted at the White House, prominently featuring UFC CEO Dana White as well as the fighters, the lit-up “claw” over the Octagon and the championship belt.

The “Maduro” spot intersperses a speech by Nicolas Maduro with appearances by Trump and his team at Mar-a-Lago following the Venezuelan dictator’s capture.

And “Military Hype” shows images of fighter jets and unclassified video of what appears to be missile launches. It also includes Trump’s February speech announcing the war with Iran, a conflict which remains deeply unpopular with the American people.

“This regime will soon learn that no one should challenge the strength and might of the United States Armed Forces,” Trump says in the ad, now seven months into the war.

Some of the ads are starkly political: The two-minute “King of the Jungle” video features images of Trump’s perceived political enemies — former Presidents Barack Obama and Biden, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, all Democrats. There’s video of lions hunting in the wild and a bald eagle sweeping down on the water. A cover of “In the Air Tonight” by In This Moment plays. And Christopher Walken’s lion speech from the 2002 film, “Poolhall Junkies,” is interspersed.

One of the spots, a three-minute-long ad titled “God Made Trump,” was broadcast during Republicans’ midterm convention in Dallas. In it, Trump is presented as a messianic figure with a riff on Paul Harvey’s “God Made a Farmer.” It was created by Dilley Meme Team, according to NPR , and began going viral earlier this year.

“I need somebody with arms strong enough to rustle the deep state, and yet gentle enough to deliver his own grandchild. Somebody to ruffle the feathers,” the voiceover says, “So God made Trump.”

The ad “Resilience” shows Trump at multiple points in his life, including early in his New York real estate career, an appearance he made on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” his descent down the Trump Tower escalator as he announced his candidacy in 2015 and then his time at the White House. In the audio, a reporter refers to him as “the bodyguard of Western Civilization.” His 2023 mugshot from a Fulton County, Georgia, sheriff’s office features prominently, along with video of an assassination attempt on him in Butler, Pennsylvania.

An estimated $2.5 million in taxpayer dollars have already been spent on the ads, according to a leading political ad-tracking firm, AdImpact. The actual cost of the taxpayer-funded ad campaign is even higher, but can’t be fully ascertained because public service announcements are subject to different public disclosure rules than campaign ads.

A total of $20 million has been allocated for the effort. The money for these ads is coming from Customs and Border Protection, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN.

Watchdog groups have said the ads mark a clear violation of appropriations law restricting the use of federal funding for propaganda or partisan communications, but it’s not clear if outside groups have standing to file a lawsuit. Though the ads have received bipartisan criticism, Congress — which groups said had the clearest lane to provide some accountability — has not acted to block the ads.

Al Drago/Bloomberg/Getty Images

作为一项备受争议的、耗资数百万美元的纳税人资助的宣传活动的一部分，特朗普政府至少制作了 13 则竞选风格的广告，旨在推广唐纳德·特朗普总统及其政策。

尚未播出的广告包括三则重点介绍美国军方及其在伊朗和委内瑞拉的军事行动的广告，一则名为“上帝造就了特朗普”，另一则回顾了他在白宫主持的UFC格斗比赛。共和党人和民主党人都质疑花费如此多的纳税人资金投放这些广告是否明智，而白宫则辩称这些广告是公益宣传。

CNN获得了12段广告片段，时长从15秒到3分钟不等，其中两段已经播出。这些片段出现在一个Dropbox账户中，该账户由LMD运营，LMD正是获得政府广告投放合同的广告公司。LMD的账户已与CNN共享。每段广告的结尾屏幕底部都显示“由美国政府付费”的字样。另一段名为“最终决战”的广告也于最近几周播出，但该广告并未出现在Dropbox账户中。

已播出的三则广告分别在CBS、CNN、MS NOW、福克斯新闻和福克斯电视台播出。目前尚不清楚所有广告是否会在电视或数字平台上播出。

白宫未回应置评请求。

虽然每则广告的主题各不相同，但许多广告都包含总统的形象以及新闻报道中的正面评价音频，这很可能会加剧人们对竞选团队利用纳税人的钱为特朗普个人谋利的批评。这些广告还包含一些爱国主义画面，例如军事毕业典礼上的抛帽仪式、拉什莫尔山上的烟火表演以及军机飞行表演。

在总统第二任期内鲜少出现在白宫的第一夫人梅拉尼娅·特朗普出现在许多广告中。广告中还出现了特朗普宣布对等关税、修建边境墙、在自动扶梯上宣布竞选总统的画面，以及一张略带讽刺意味的、用自动笔装裱的照片，照片上是特朗普“总统星光大道”上代表前总统乔·拜登的标志。

据CNN此前报道，一位知情人士透露，特朗普亲自主导了这些视频广告的制作，包括参与挑选所使用的图片和视频素材。两位了解这些广告的特朗普顾问表示，这些广告是由白宫视频团队内部制作的——该团队隶属于负责政府公共信息的通讯团队——但其中至少有一条广告是由一个支持特朗普的表情包制作小组制作的。

迄今为止播出的这些广告已引发广泛谴责，尽管白宫表示计划加大力度。众议院司法委员会资深民主党议员杰米·拉斯金在X网站上发帖称，这些广告“可能构成重罪，即为政治竞选目的而盗窃和侵占政府财产”。如果民主党明年赢得众议院控制权，他将获得国会传唤权。

甚至一些共和党人也批评了这项广告宣传活动。

“听着，如果你想用你的超级政治行动委员会或其他竞选账户里的钱来传达这个信息，那没问题。但这并不是合适的公益广告。你知道，我们不应该这样花纳税人的钱，”北卡罗来纳州参议员汤姆·蒂利斯说道。

德克萨斯州参议员约翰·科宁表示，这些广告并非合理使用纳税人的钱。“这根本就不是一个有争议的问题。”

“UFC 250”广告大力宣传了该公司和特朗普在白宫主持的6月份比赛，重点展示了UFC首席执行官达纳·怀特以及参赛选手、八角笼上发光的“爪子”和冠军腰带。

在名为“马杜罗”的广告中，穿插播放了尼古拉斯·马杜罗的演讲，以及特朗普及其团队在委内瑞拉独裁者被捕后在海湖庄园的亮相。

“军事炒作”节目播放了战斗机的画面和疑似导弹发射的未加密视频。节目中还包括特朗普二月份宣布对伊朗开战的讲话，这场冲突至今仍不受美国民众欢迎。

“这个政权很快就会明白，任何人都不应该挑战美国武装部队的实力和威力，”特朗普在广告中说道，此时战争已经持续了七个月。

部分广告的政治色彩十分鲜明：两分钟的“丛林之王”视频中出现了特朗普认定的政治对手——前总统奥巴马和拜登、众议院前议长南希·佩洛西、前国务卿希拉里·克林顿以及加州州长加文·纽森，他们都是民主党人。视频中穿插着狮子在野外捕猎和白头鹰俯冲水面的画面，并配以In This Moment乐队翻唱的《今夜在空中》（In the Air Tonight）。此外，视频中还穿插了克里斯托弗·沃肯在2002年电影《台球厅瘾君子》（Poolhall Junkies）中关于狮子的演讲片段。

其中一则名为“上帝创造了特朗普”的广告，时长三分钟，在共和党达拉斯中期选举大会期间播出。广告中，特朗普被塑造成救世主形象，并改编自保罗·哈维的歌曲“上帝创造了农民”。据美国国家公共电台（NPR）报道，该广告由迪利表情包团队（Dilley Meme Team）制作，并于今年早些时候开始在网络上疯传。

“我需要一个既有足够力量撼动深层政府，又足够温柔到能亲自接生自己孙子的人。一个能掀起波澜的人，”旁白说道，“所以上帝创造了特朗普。”

这则名为“韧性”的广告展现了特朗普人生中的多个重要时刻，包括他早年在纽约从事房地产事业的时期、他做客“奥普拉·温弗瑞秀”的片段、2015年宣布竞选总统时走下特朗普大厦自动扶梯的画面，以及他在白宫的时光。在音频中，一位记者称他为“西方文明的保镖”。广告中还显著展示了他2023年在佐治亚州富尔顿县警长办公室拍摄的嫌犯照，以及一段他在宾夕法尼亚州巴特勒遭遇暗杀未遂的视频。

据领先的政治广告追踪公司AdImpact估计，目前已有约250万美元的纳税人资金被用于这些广告。这项由纳税人资助的广告活动的实际成本更高，但由于公益广告与竞选广告适用不同的信息披露规则，因此无法完全确定。

这项行动共拨款2000万美元。据两名知情人士向CNN透露，这些广告费用来自美国海关与边境保护局。

监督机构表示，这些广告明显违反了拨款法，该法限制将联邦资金用于宣传或党派宣传，但目前尚不清楚外部团体是否有资格提起诉讼。尽管这些广告受到了两党的批评，但国会——各团体认为国会是最有能力追究责任的机构——却尚未采取行动阻止这些广告的播放。