Florida voters who supported President Donald Trump in 2024 recoiled when shown one of the TV ads his administration paid for with public money, with one saying it left him physically ill, according to a focus group conducted by The Bulwark.
Bulwark publisher Sarah Longwell convened voters who backed Trump two years ago but now disapprove of his job performance, the kind of voters she said Trump has to win back. Before the moderator could finish describing the ad, Ramiro, 58, of Miami, cut in with “Oh my God.”
The spot shows Trump vowing to “demolish the deep state” and “rout the fake news media,” and it closely mirrors a 2024 Trump campaign video. It has aired during NFL and college football broadcasts with the tag “Paid for by the U.S. Government.”
“The second that ad started and he started talking I literally just got nauseous, because I couldn’t wait for it to be over, ’cause he’s in your face with nothing but lies, and anything that he says now you know is just a lie,” said Paul, 63, of Palm Coast.
Bob, 65, of Spring Hill, said he saw the ad the same day his Eagles lost to the Rams. In his view, it would only work if the disclaimer instead read “definition of a narcissist.” Dena, 53, of Palm Bay, called Trump “power hungry.” Ramiro said it might be worth Republicans not winning “for the next ten years” to “wash these people out.”
Longwell wrote that Trump may have spent public money on ads that “cemented his loss,” noting that some in the group said they intend to vote Democratic.
The focus group follows polling showing broad opposition to the spending. A Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 86 percent of Americans, including 80 percent of Republicans, say spending taxpayer money on election ads featuring the president or his Cabinet is inappropriate.
After bipartisan backlash, Trump said his super PAC, MAGA Inc., would cover future ads, but the White House said he would not repay taxpayers for spots already aired. The ad shown to the focus group had cost about $7.2 million in public money on its own as of Oct. 6, The New York Times reported, citing AdImpact. A lawsuit filed by Common Cause and others alleges the administration shifted $20 million in border security funds to pay for the ads.
The White House has defended the spots as public service announcements, telling Axios they are “clearly not political” because Trump “is not on the ballot and the ads don’t have a call to action.”
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