The Trump campaign filed a complaint against The Washington Post with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) in response to advertising efforts Republicans argue amount to illegal electioneering.
On Thursday, the Dhillon Law Group filed a complaint on behalf of former President Donald Trump and Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, that claims the Post is engaged in “a dark money corporate campaign” to boost Vice President Kamala Harris.
“The Washington Post recently announced it would not endorse a presidential candidate, a decision the Post’s owner defended on the basis that ‘Presidential endorsements do nothing to tip the scales of an election,’” the complaint reads. “Yet, on October 30, 2024, the news website Semafor published a report titled ‘Washington Post pays to boost stories critical of Trump as subscribers flee.’”
The Semafor article published Wednesday chronicled the paper’s desperate efforts to save readership after losing hundreds of thousands of subscribers in the aftermath of an announcement that the editorial board would not endorse Harris.
“Washington Post pays to boost stories critical of Trump as subscribers flee,” the headline read.
Semafor reported that eight days before Election Day, “On Monday, the paper aggressively ramped up its paid advertising campaign, boosting dozens of articles related to the election. While the articles about Vice President Kamala Harris were relatively neutral in tone and focused on her innovative digital strategy, her policy proposals, and her chances of winning next week, the articles that the Post paid to highlight about Trump told a different story.”
The Post
