He also knows that his defiance of these institutions will make news. So, for instance, he recently banished three major news organizations from the White House press pool. A court ruled that he couldn't do that, so he let the news organizations back in -- and then banished one of them, CNN, from Air Force One. He pushed these news outlets around, which made him feel powerful, and then, when he lost a legal challenge, he found a way to defy the court, which also made him feel powerful. And the whole thing was a multi-day news story. He felt powerful because he made that happen.
There's just one problem: the majority of Americans still hate him. All this might have pleased his base, but his base is shrinking rapidly.
And now he's delivering the same one-two punch in the form of taxpayer-funded ads for himself. The ads are illegal, though there's no institution that will hold him accountable for them. The ads are on the air and his defiance of the law is making news.
But the ads are terrible. I posted the "Love Me" ad last week.
So I was just watching Fox News and this commercial played during Jesse Watters show. It says “Paid for by the US Government.”
— Jim DeFede (@DeFede) September 24, 2026
This is clearly a campaign ad. And the singers are just singing over and over again, “Love me” - over images of Trump. @CBSMiami @CBSNews pic.twitter.com/eCkEZpipWx
That one, at least, has some copy focused on issues. If you think America's biggest problem right now is the specter of communism, and if you believe that Trump has revived manufacturing and given ordinary Americans a massive tax cut, this could be an effective ad -- if it weren't insistently asking us to love Trump.
But then there's ad #2, which might as well be called "I Don't Feel Your Pain."
The voiceover, from a Trump speech, is just patriotic pap. It offers no acknowledgment of the votetrs' discontent:
In all the chronicles of the ages, never before has any nation celebrated so magnificent a triumph as this one. We are the freest people on earth, and by the grace of God, the United States of America is the most successful, most accomplished, most exceptional nation ever to exist in human history. Liberty has prevailed here because of the culture and character of the people who declared it, defended it, and preserved it. We reach a milestone like no other and celebrate with joyful hearts and soaring spirits because after two and a half centuries, we know that this is not an ending. This is only the beginning of the golden age of America. God bless you all.An ad #3 is just a recycled Trump 2024 campaign ad, featuring Trump making promises that supporters expected him to fulfill by now.
I said above that Trump's skill is to attack weak institutions. He's doing that here. The ads are on the air, paid for with your tax dollars, unlawfully. Voters are seeing the ads and learning about how he's brazenly skirting the law to create and broadcast them.
But that's great! I'm delighted that he's still so good at getting attention that even people who don't watch the TV programming where these ads have appeared and don't have social media algorithms that would put the ads in their feeds will learn about them anyway. I'm glad because it means that millions of people will see these bad, tone-deaf ads and learn that tax money was squandered on them, in defiance of the law.
In other words, the usual Trump double-tap -- do a brazen thing that's attention-grabbing, then get more attention as everyone discusses how Trump did the brazen thing -- is working to the Democrats' midterm advantage. Democrats should be thrilled that these bad ads are out there, and thrilled that stories about their illegality and cost are also out there. Without meaning to, Trump is finally using his attention-grabbing and criminal talents for the good of the country.
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