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A Boon For The Majority-Trump Owned Company

Washington D.C. – On Monday, the Federal Trade Commission, led by a Trump-appointee and devoid of Democratic commissioners after Trump fired them in March, agreed to a merger of Omnicom and The Interpublic Group of Companies (IPG) on the highly unusual condition that they did not direct advertising dollars away from publishers based on their political or ideological viewpoints. In the ruling, the Trump-appointed Chairman of the FTC, Andrew Ferguson, specifically called out Omnicom and IPG’s association with an initiative called the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM). Conservatives have accused GARM of colluding to withhold advertising revenue from conservative outlets. Now, a review from government watchdog Accountable.US finds President Trump’s majority-owned Trump Media & Technology Group stands to gain financially from the Trump FTC ruling.

“The self-professed small government conservatives in Congress are strangely silent as the Trump administration moves to force private businesses to advertise on right-wing media platforms like President Trump’s Truth Social,” said Accountable.US Executive Director Tony Carrk. “But for President Trump, it’s just another day of his administration tailoring policy that puts more money in his pocket while he demands brutal cuts to health care and food aid for millions of working Americans, seniors, and veterans.” 

AT ISSUE: In 2024, X and Rumble filed a federal suit against GARM, claiming they lost advertising revenue and were being effectively boycotted by advertisers based on their right-leaning content.  Rumble is the advertising platform that is used by Truth Social, a subsidiary of Trump Media, which is majority owned by President Trump. Since ads for Truth Social go through Rumble, an advertising boycott of Rumble would also effectively be an advertising boycott of Truth Social. 

Later that year, Republicans on the Judiciary Committee filed a probe into the Omnicom-IPG merger over their associations with GARM, which they also accused of discriminating against conservative media by directing advertising dollars away from right-leaning outlets. During a committee hearing on GARM Rep. Jerry Nadler called out conservatives on the committee saying, “Under the Majority’s theory, the only way to cure this alleged harm would be for advertisers to be FORCED to run ads on platforms like Twitter—now known as X—Truth Social, Breitbart, and The Daily Wire, even though those sites are rife with adult content, hate speech, false information, misinformation, and racist and violent propaganda.” And with this FTC ruling, Rep. Nadler’s prediction appears to be coming true–and President Trump and Trump Media are poised to reap the financial benefits. 

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