White House faces scrutiny over new Trump ‘final battle’ ad, funded by taxpayers

The White House has launched another taxpayer-funded television advertisement featuring US President Donald Trump, weeks before the November midterm elections.

The latest ad shows Trump walking down a hallway while audio plays from a 2023 speech in which he declares: “this is the final battle.”

“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 says.

The ad aired during at least two NFL games on Fox on Sunday and ends with the disclosure “Paid for by the US Government.”

It closely resembles a video Trump posted during his 2024 presidential campaign, but without the campaign logo and text number.

It is the third government-funded Trump advertisement tracked by AdImpact in recent days.

The White House has defended the commercials as public service announcements rather than campaign advertising. It previously said the ads “are very clearly not campaign ads.”

Government watchdog Common Cause has questioned whether taxpayer funding for the advertisements could violate federal restrictions on government “propaganda”.

The White House previously described the campaign as “educational and unapologetically patriotic” and said its purpose was to promote national pride.