‘The Daily Show’ Mocks Trump Administration for Denying Repurposed Ad Is a Campaign Spot: ‘Exact Same Footage’

Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" took the Trump administration to task for rejecting their claim that a new advertisement is not a campaign spot, pointing out that it utilizes identical footage from President Donald Trump's 2024 campaign. On Tuesday, host Jordan Klepper addressed the controversy, joking that Trump should be using government funds to address more pressing issues such as "water in the reflecting pool."

Klepper scrutinized the spot, remarking on the "questionable artistic choices" like a "six-second close up of a storage closet" and whether it was meant to symbolize the containment of the "deep state" or the storage of footage. He continued, "Spending taxpayer money on a campaign ad is clearly indefensible," and played the administration's statement that the ad was "very clearly not [a] campaign ad" since "Trump is not on the ballot and there's no call to action."

Klepper pointed out the contradiction, noting that Trump had previously advised voters to "pretend" he's running, even mentioning he did so "three times in a row." He then highlighted that the new ad was the same as one from Trump's 2024 presidential campaign, stating, "This is literally a campaign ad they ran two years ago. It’s the exact same footage."

Klepper ended by questioning the decision not to update the ad's language, which included a "war monger’s line" that doesn't resonate as strongly in 2026.