FCC Chairman Doesn’t See Anything “Out Of The Ordinary” About White House Airing Of Taxpayer-Funded Trump Ads

The chairman of the FCC dismissed concerns about the White House use of taxpayer money to pay for a series of ads promoting President Donald Trump.

Noting that the administration has defended the spots as public service announcements “that you see all the time,” Carr said “I don’t think there’s anything unique or different about it, other than being a normal PSA, the types of PSAs that the government naturally and normally runs.”

The spots began running last week, including on broadcast stations. More than $2.5 million has been spent on the spots, per CNN, citing estimates from the analysis firm AdImpact.

Carr, appointed by Trump, told reporters on Wednesday, “What I have seen is that these are normal force PSAs that the government runs — Republicans and Democrats routinely — and there doesn’t strike me as anything at all out of the ordinary. And there’s nothing in there that strikes me that merit any sort of FCC review or any liability on any broadcaster for running a regular, normal PSA ad.”

The group Public Citizen filed a complaint with the FCC this week, calling the ads “propaganda” and claiming that broadcasters may be violating their public interest obligations by running spots that are an illegal expenditure of public funds. The group noted that one spot that was made for Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign was nearly identical to one that the White House is now running, with the tag, “Paid for by the U.S. government.”

The White House pointed to spots by the Obama administration to promote the Affordable Care Act and the Biden administration to spread the word about the Covid vaccine. But the latest Trump spot is centered on Trump himself, not a single issue.

Carr said that “activist groups like Public Citizen, there’s groups on the left that have long worked and pushed to weaponize the FCC’s license renewal process. I’m sure that they will do it again in the future.”

Anna Gomez, the sole Democrat on the FCC, told reporters that “as a regular citizen, not as an FCC commissioner, I can see why people are thinking that these ads are political ads, and I’m certain that we’re going to hear more about this from folks in Congress who are ultimately responsible for appropriations and ensuring the good uses of taxpayer dollars.”

She said that when it comes to the FCC, she said that she “highly” doubts that the agency “is going to do much to investigate it, despite opening the door to exactly these types of investigations, loosely based on a roving mandate to police the public interest.” She noted the Carr FCC investigations of complaints against ABC, CBS and NBC, and called it a “glaring double standard,” which “is exactly why I’ve warned against the dangers of setting this kind of precedent, because we need to be concerned about what this will mean for future administrations.”

The FCC launched probes after complaints over the way that ABC News moderated the 2024 presidential debate, the appearance of Kamala Harris on NBC’s Saturday Night Live and the way that 60 Minutes edited an interview with Harris in advance of the election. The FCC also ordered ABC’s stations to submit to early license renewals, an unusual act that the agency said was related to an investigation into its hiring practices under diversity, equity and inclusion policies. ABC has sued the agency for First Amendment retaliation, citing comments made by Carr about Jimmy Kimmel and license threats made by Trump, among other things.

The Trump spots have been widely criticized by Democrats as well as some Republicans. Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) said on CBS News that “you can’t spend public money to promote yourself.”