A new “dark money” group in the Trump campaign orbit has begun running ads criticizing President Biden in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania.
The new group, called Securing American Greatness, has booked hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of ad spots with multiple television stations in the state that are currently scheduled to run through the middle of June, according to records filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The group’s premiere ad is a 30-second piece that accuses President Biden of downplaying inflation and urges viewers to call him about the issue. Because the ad does not explicitly urge viewers to vote against Biden, it is categorized as a “non-candidate issue ad” and the group is not required to report details on the expenditures to the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
According to Politico, Securing American Greatness is a 501(c)4 nonprofit that is run by Taylor Budowich, a former Trump communications director and a senior adviser to his 2020 election campaign. Budowich also oversees the largest pro-Trump super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc. (MAGA Inc.), a group that reported $34.5 million cash on hand as of the end of April. FCC records indicate the group’s president is Kaelan Dorr, the Trump 2020 campaign’s chief marketing officer and a former Trump Treasury Department official. In 2018, Dorr took a position at Sinclair Broadcasting Group as an executive producer for the show of Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn, an attorney who later joined Trump lawyers in disputing the 2020 presidential election results. The group’s board includes Cliff Sims, a former director of message strategy for the Trump White House, according to FCC records. Sims is a senior fellow at the America First Policy Institute, a think tank chaired by former Small Business Administration head Linda McMahon, a Trump campaign fundraiser and large campaign donor. Among the group’s chairs is Pam Bondi, the former Florida attorney general who leads pro-Trump super PAC Make America Great Again, Again.
