Vance insists taxpayer funded ads promoting Trump are not partisan

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Vice President JD Vance defended the taxpayer-funded television advertisements promoting President Donald Trump, arguing that the spots are “not partisan.”

The ads, which have aired on multiple channels in recent weeks, feature Trump pledging to “defeat communism,” “demolish the deep state” and “rout the fake news media.” They also highlight his tax cuts and emphasis on domestic manufacturing. Each spot includes the disclaimer: “Paid for by the U.S. government.”

Critics say the ads’ overtly political content makes them a blatant violation of federal law. The White House, meanwhile, has characterized the spots as “patriotic” public service announcements.

Speaking Monday at Joint Base Andrews, Vance was asked whether the ads were a “good use of taxpayer dollars” with the November midterm elections approaching.

“Well, look, if you look historically,” the vice president said. “Go back to the Obama administration with the Affordable Care Act. You have the people’s government using tax dollars to advertise about what the government is doing.”

“It’s part of actually living in a constitutional republic,” he added. “You have to be honest with the American people about what you’re doing, about what’s going on, and part of that is getting out there and telling the message.”

Vance said there was nothing improper about the ads, which the administration has reportedly spent more than $2.8 million to air across CNN, MS NOW, and other networks.

“I don’t think there’s anything unusual or unorthodox about it,” Vance said. “I’m sure that some people probably don’t like it; but if you look at the message of those advertisements, they’re not partisan…We’re trying to tell a story, I think, about how great the United States of America is.”

The White House has made a similar argument in recent days.

“The PSAs are clearly not political,” a White House official told The Independent last week. “The President is not on the ballot and the ads don’t have a call to action.”

But the campaign has drawn criticism from lawmakers in both parties.

“This may be felony criminal theft and conversion of government property for political campaign purposes,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, wrote on X in late September. “It is a Hatch Act violation for any government employees who worked on it or used government resources to make it. It is blatantly unethical under numerous federal ethics provisions proscribing the use of government resources for political campaigns.”

The Hatch Act, a decades-old federal law, limits partisan political activity by most federal employees.

“I don’t think any public official — including President Trump or Kristi Noem or John Kennedy — should spend public money on private ads for themselves,” Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, told CBS News last month.