Make America Great Again Inc. (MAGA Inc.), the super PAC aligned with the Republican candidate, ran digital ads in swing states that used footage sold by companies based overseas.

There is no suggestion of wrongdoing in using the material, and Newsweek was unable to establish whether MAGA Inc. was aware of which companies had produced the content, which is sold via stock image libraries.

Newsweek reached out to MAGA Inc.’s executive director, Taylor Budowich, on X, and a Trump representative via email for comment.

As the presidential election nears, campaigns associated with both Trump and his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, have pumped billions into political advertising.

One ad, called “American Strength 2,” used stock footage of a warplane, which the Canadian stock image company iStock says it sells exclusively. It listed the footage as featuring an F18 Hornet and having been made by Treedeo, a stock footage producer with offices in St Petersburg, Russia, and Kyrgyzstan.

Trumps
Former President Donald Trump and former first lady Melania Trump at a campaign rally at Madison Square Garden on October 27. MAGA Inc. used stock footage produced by foreign companies including Russia as part of…  AP Photo/Alex Brandon

The tagline for the ad, which ran between August 20, 2024, and September 9, 2024, in Georgia, according to the Google Ads Transparency Center, read: “A return to peace through strength. Vote Donald Trump.”

Newsweek reached out to Treedeo via email and iStock via its website for comment.

A second advertisement, “American Made 1,” ran in Pennsylvania from August 19, 2024, to September 9, 2024. It used stock footage sold by a Canadian company called BlackBoxGuild. The advert featured footage of an American flag fluttering on the roof of a building, which matches footage on Pond5, an online marketplace for royalty-free media, uploaded by the Canadian company.

A tagline read: “American made, made possible. Vote Donald Trump.”

Newsweek reached out to BlackBoxGuild via its website to comment.

Other ads the group produced included one called “Family Dinner,” which showed footage of a family eating a picnic sold by a Slovenian stock footage company, and another called “Summer,” which used footage of a family eating in a garden sold by an Estonian stock footage provider.


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The PAC also used footage sold by stock footage companies in Serbia, Estonia, Thailand, Montenegro, South Africa and Britain.

Mark Temnycky, a non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank’s Eurasia Center, said using foreign-sold ads was ironic given Trump’s foreign policy.

“Throughout the campaign trail, one of former President Donald Trump’s key slogans has been ‘America First,'” he told Newsweek.