Conservative groups unleash spending blitz to pass Trump's bill

CNN

21-05-2025

As President Donald Trump works to muscle his sweeping tax and spending cuts package through Congress, a network of conservative groups has undertaken a multimillion-dollar advertising blitz to spread his message to voters and pressure recalcitrant lawmakers to get in line.
The outside spending to pass the 'big, beautiful bill' at the center of Trump's domestic agenda also offers a preview of the campaigns GOP lawmakers could face in the months to come, urging them to back the president's moves or face potential political consequences in next year's midterm elections.
A collection of roughly half a dozen groups has spent more than $8 million booking ad time since the start of the month, according to data from the ad tracking firm AdImpact, promoting the massive bill Republicans are racing to get through the House before next week's Memorial Day recess.
One of the big early spenders is Securing American Greatness, part of the president's political orbit and a beneficiary of the unprecedented fundraising Trump has undertaken as a term-limited president. That group – the nonprofit arm of Trump's MAGA Inc. super PAC – has booked more than $6 million worth of ad time since the start of the month.
And it has already spent more than $2 million on a 30-second spot that blames Democratic leaders, including former President Joe Biden, Sen. Chuck Schumer, and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, for economic challenges that it argues Trump 'is fixing' with his proposals.
'They've ruined our economy; President Trump is fixing it,' the ad begins. 'Trump's plan: middle class tax cuts, job creating tax cuts, tariffs that bring home American jobs, slashing waste, fraud and abuse, increasing American energy production, bringing down prices.'
Corry Bliss, a Republican consultant, said the ad blitz from Trump allies is an early show of strength and a smart strategy. 'This big beautiful bill is the president's agenda,' he said. 'He ran on this agenda. He won on this agenda. And now he needs to deliver this agenda.'
'His well-funded political operation makes clear that Trump is saying ahead of the 2026 midterms, 'I will support the candidates who help my message,'' Bliss added.
A constellation of other organizations is also pushing for the package.
For instance, Americans for Prosperity, affiliated with Kansas billionaire and sometime-Trump nemesis Charles Koch, has run more than $1 million worth of advertising already, and is promising to spend $20 million altogether on its Protect Prosperity campaign, aimed at extending Trump's 2017 tax cuts that are the heart of the draft legislation.
'Voters didn't send Republicans to Washington to raise taxes. They sent them to cut spending and protect their paychecks,' says one of AFP's ads, which began airing last week. 'Tell the politicians we need tax relief, not tax hikes.'
Despite backing Trump rival Nikki Haley in last year's presidential primary, extending the president's tax cuts 'is our number one priority,' said AFP spokesman Bill Riggs. In addition to its advertising, AFP is lobbying members on Capitol Hill and dispatching its standing army of activists to talk to voters in key congressional districts.
'Lawmakers should know AFP is going to be there every step of the way to help get it done, and after it is, we'll be there to make sure voters understand the benefits,' Riggs said.
Other groups with ties to the administration and GOP congressional leadership have also launched waves of advertisements, aimed at both shoring up Republican votes and targeting some Democrats.
For example, the Club For Growth, an influential conservative organization, went up with an ad last week aimed at GOP Rep. Mike Lawler from New York's battleground 17th Congressional District, urging his constituents to call and 'tell him to extend and expand Trump's tax cuts.'
Lawler is among several Republicans from high-tax states who have pushed for a higher cap on the amount of local and state taxes his constituents are allowed to deduct from their federal income taxes.
A new Club for Growth commercial released this week takes aim at another New York Republican, second-term Rep. Nick LaLota, who campaigned last year on repealing the cap on the state and local tax deduction that Trump signed into law in his first term.
The Club's president David McIntosh recently told reporters that he anticipated a seven-figure campaign from the group to pass the Trump bill but did not release a more specific budget.
Another group called 'Unleash Prosperity Now,' co-founded by former Trump economic adviser Stephen Moore, is running an ad targeting several Democrats, including the representative from New York's highly competitive 19th Congressional District, Josh Riley.'What do you think about your Democratic congressman, Josh Riley, voting to let the Trump tax cuts expire, raising your family tax bill?' the ad says.
Other advertising reflects lobbying to secure specific outcomes – as competing factions in the GOP House conference push their own priorities.
A group called the American Job Creation Alliance, founded by veteran GOP operative Dan Conston for the legislative battle, launched a $750,000 ad campaign this week, targeting members of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee.
Earlier in the debate over the bill, some Republicans in the House weighed limiting or eliminating state and local tax deductions for corporations, known as C-SALT, in their search for additional revenue to offset the bill's broader costs.
The alliance is fighting to keep the deductions in place, saying that ending them would amount to an across-the-board increase in corporate taxes.
'President Trump's historic tax cuts brought record prosperity to America,' says one of the group's ads, variations of which highlight a series of members on the House Ways & Means Committee, which oversees tax policy. 'That's why it's so important Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick is fighting to extend the tax cuts with C-SALT in place.'
The advertising blitz comes at a critical moment for the GOP in Washington with deep divides remaining among key factions in the House Republican conference, which holds a paper-thin majority in the chamber. Underscoring the stakes, Trump traveled to Capitol Hill this week in an attempt to win over holdouts on the legislation. And he warned that House Republicans who oppose the bill could 'possibly' face primary challenges.
Although Trump cannot seek a third term, he continues to build the financial firepower of his political operation and recently headlined fundraising dinners for his super PAC that came with a seven-figure price tag for each attendee. (Super PACs can raise unlimited sums, unlike candidate committees.)
At issue is the balance of tax cuts, spending cuts, and deficit reduction that the legislative package will strike – with some of those priorities in tension with each other. And the prospect of painful cuts has already emerged as a Democratic attack line, which some of the new ads from GOP outside groups aim to rebut.
'There's a lot of misinformation out there trying to scare seniors. Trust me, Congressman Tom Kean Jr. is fighting to protect all of us,' says an ad from the American Action Network, a leading conservative non-profit aligned with House Republican leadership, which is aimed at boosting a Republican member in another highly competitive House district. 'He's supporting President Trump's common sense reforms to root out waste, fraud, and abuse,' it continues.
Democrats, meanwhile, are already using some of the bill's controversial measures to target Republicans in off-year campaigns – providing a possible preview of the party's 2026 midterm messaging.
For example, in New Jersey, where a crowded field of Democrats is competing for the chance to succeed term-limited Gov. Phil Murphy, contenders' campaign ads are blasting Republican proposals in Washington.
'I'll fight Donald Trump's Medicaid cuts by using the state surplus,' says an ad from Jersey City Mayor and Democratic gubernatorial contender Steve Fulop, referring to potential cuts to the federal health insurance program weighed by GOP lawmakers as they search for ways to pay for Trump's landmark legislation.
'Mikie Sherrill will stop Trump from gutting Medicaid,' says another ad from a group supporting the Democratic congresswoman and gubernatorial candidate.