The White House is running a Trump campaign video as a public service announcement paid for with tax money, which looks illegal and is hurting Republicans more than helping them ahead of the midterms.

• The clip first went up on Truth Social before the 2024 election and is now airing during football, SNL, and Fox News as a taxpayer-funded "PSA."
• Former White House ethics lawyers from both parties say using public money for party propaganda is flatly illegal, and one calls it an impeachable offense.
• The president is exempt from the Hatch Act, but the staff who made the ad are not, so any punishment would likely land on someone junior.
• The ad's lines about throwing out warmongers and the deep state remind voters of the Iran war he started and the Epstein files he sat on.
• Republican Senator John Kennedy has publicly said the ad should not run, and Trump is sitting on a $400 million super PAC he has barely spent on other candidates.

Outlook: Expect no real consequences for Trump, but the ad turns the midterms into a referendum on him, which is exactly what Republicans wanted to avoid.