It was about a month ago when The Atlantic reported that Donald Trump had directed his political operation to create a series of election-season television advertisements about how great he is. It was a dubious idea for all sorts of reasons, but it was clear at the time where the money would come from: The president’s focus was on how to spend his super PAC’s $400 million political war chest, not public funds.

A month later, however, many Americans are already seeing Trump-centric election ads on TV, except they’re the ones who are footing the bill for those commercials. Politico reported:

The Trump administration launched a new television advertisement featuring President Donald Trump calling out socialism, communism and Marxism, appearing to use government resources to go on air in the weeks before the midterm election.

The ad began airing Wednesday night, according to the ad tracking service AdImpact, and has aired on programs on Fox News and Newsmax along with connected TV platforms.

The ads explicitly tell viewers in a disclaimer that the commercials were “paid for by the U.S. government,” although it did not elaborate on details such as which part of the government.

The degree to which the 30-second ad looks like a campaign commercial is hard to overstate. It’s filled with images and video clips of Trump and his campaign slogans and concludes with a Trump ally praising the president’s “toughness.”

The video serves no purpose other than to celebrate and glorify Trump. (The ad’s soundtrack is the song “Love Me” by JMSN, emphasizing the lyric, “I’ll make them love me,” which is every bit as creepy and on the nose as it sounds.)

At this point, I could write a few paragraphs fact-checking the ad and noting how counterproductive it is for Republicans to have a wildly unpopular incumbent president putting the spotlight on himself as early voting begins in earnest.

But while those details are relevant, let’s instead focus on what matters most: This appears to be a clear instance in which the federal government is illegally using taxpayer money on brazen political propaganda.

As The Washington Post reported, it is illegal under federal law to use funds for “publicity or propaganda purposes.” The Government Accountability Office has said the prohibition applies to communications that are “purely partisan” and “designed to aid a political party or candidates,” which would seem to apply to this video, given the content and the context.

Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee, argued via social media that the ad could amount to, among other things, “felony criminal theft and conversion of government property for political campaign purposes.”

If recent history is any guide, congressional Republicans will shrug with indifference at this latest abuse of taxpayer money, but should Democrats win a majority in either chamber, it’s a safe bet this will be among the controversies to generate real scrutiny — including from Raskin, who’s positioned to chair the House Judiciary Committee.

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