A second ad promoting President Donald Trump that was “paid for by the U.S. government” aired during NFL games Sunday — warning American football fans of a “final battle” for the country.
“This is the final battle with you at my side,” Trump says in the ad, which features him walking down a hallway as suspenseful music plays.
“We will cast out the communists, Marxists and fascists. We will throw off the sick political class that hates our country. We will rout the fake news media, and we will liberate America from these villains once and for all,” Trump said.
The ad aired during Fox’s broadcasts of the Washington Commanders game against the Seattle Seahawks and the match-up between the Carolina Panthers and Cleveland Browns, according to CNN.
The Trump administration is already facing criticism over airing ads featuring the president that explicitly state they were “paid for by the U.S. government” — just a little over a month before the midterm elections.
The White House compared the ads to previous administrations running public service announcements about Medicare or the Covid vaccination, telling CNN in a statement the commercials “are very clearly not campaign ads.” The Independent contacted the White House Sunday for further clarification.
The ad is nearly identical to a video Trump shared on Truth Social in January 2024, during his third presidential campaign. That version of the video includes a message to “join President Trump’s Fight for America” and information about his campaign.
It comes as the Trump administration faces criticism over several other government-funded ads that have recently aired featuring the president.
An intense ad titled “America Will Never Be a Communist Country” that aired Thursday also raised eyebrows. It came amid the Trump administration’s ban on MS NOW, CNN and Politico and the subsequent launching of its own media operation, which critics slammed as “state-run media.”
That commercial begins with a series of black-and-white images of Trump before cutting to images of him at political rallies and White House events. The commercial promises to “defeat communism, socialism and Marxism” and boasts Trump’s “largest tax cuts in history” while vowing to “defend law and order and police.”
It also featured a message from UFC CEO Dana White praising Trump as the “toughest, most resilient person” he has met.
Critics slammed the commercial, which also appeared on Fox, saying it clearly resembled propaganda.
“Took this one right out of the Florida Republican playbook,” said Nikki Fried, chair of the Florida Democrats. “This ad is pure communist propaganda. The pure collapse of Trump.”
“Hold the party that condones this responsible in November,” said Joyce Alene, a former U.S. attorney appointed by former President Barack Obama.
White House officials defended the earlier ad in a statement to The Independent Thursday, saying that since Trump is not on the ballot, the ads are not campaign related.
“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 spokesperson said. “The ad is educational and unapologetically patriotic. We should be proud of our country.”
