WASHINGTON--Flush with cash, political groups outside the White House are aggressively coming to President Donald Trump's aid as he battles low public approval numbers, questions about his election campaign's ties to Russia and a stalled legislative agenda.
Through television attack ads and online campaigns normally seen only during the tumult of an election, the groups are helping Trump to strike back against his perceived enemies and boost his agenda, adding to the firepower of his Twitter account and the bully pulpit of the White House.
On Tuesday, one of the groups, America First Policies, launched an attack ad against a senator from Trump's own Republican Party who had balked at a Senate plan to overhaul healthcare that would leave millions more Americans uninsured. The attack angered Senate leader Mitch McConnell, who is struggling to rustle up the votes for the plan.
It is the first time in a non-election year that a U.S. president has had Super PACs - groups that can raise unlimited amounts of money and typically operate during elections - or political non-profits, which do not have to disclose their donors or where they spend their money, working to defend him personally rather than focusing on promoting his policies.
In 2013, supporters of President Barack Obama formed a non-profit called Organizing for Action (OFA), which focused on a handful of policy issues but did not make personal attacks or use television ads.
The pro-Trump groups are prohibited from coordinating with the White House, which declined to comment for this story. The New York Times reported that McConnell had complained to White House chief of staff Reince Priebus about America First Policies' ad. The group later pulled the ad.
America First Policies and the other pro-Trump groups were set up to promote Trump and his legislative agenda - healthcare reform, building a wall along the Mexican border, and pushing for lower taxation and deregulation. They have no allegiance to the Republican Party, which can pose a problem for Republican leaders as Tuesday's attack ad showed.
With Trump's approval ratings sagging and his agenda now overshadowed by a federal investigation into his 2016 campaign's ties to Russia, the groups are pouring resources into protecting Trump’s image, demonizing his opponents and amplifying his message that he is the victim of a witch-hunt.
"The establishment is shaken, angry, losing control," begins another new ad by America First Policies, which says on its website that it is a non-profit organization "supporting key policy initiatives." Images of the U.S. Capitol, Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and liberal MSNBC host Rachel Maddow flash in the background.
"Desperately waging an all-out war to protect their interest," the narrator continues. "They lie, they leak, they leech onto power."
America First Policies is comprised of more traditionally conservative Republicans and was founded after the election by a close ally of Vice President Mike Pence, Nick Ayers. Ayers was appointed Pence's new chief of staff on Thursday and will step down as board chairman of America First Policies.
The group said in a statement their mission was to promote Trump's agenda and that they were not afraid to push House Republicans through grassroots and advertising to support the healthcare overhaul.
The groups' shift from policy promotion to attack mode, does not surprise Marjorie Hershey, a political science professor at Indiana University. "A lot of research tells us that negative ads tend to be more attention-getting than positive ads, and because Super PACs themselves aren't on the ballot, they can afford to risk the unsavory reputation that negative advertisers often get,” Hershey said.
Strategists and political scientists say it is hard to know if the groups are actually moving public opinion. But the groups point to their fundraising as evidence of their success – much of it raised not from millionaires, but in small donations from voters.
