Google removes and later restores Trump Ads: Andrew Arenge, who runs the University of Pennsylvania Program on Opinion Research and Election Studies, first posted on X that Google censored a Trump ad scheduled to run May 1-3. The ad, which was censored multiple times, depicted a fictional phone call between a Biden campaign aide and a voter. “Everything costs more. Food, gas, rent,” the voter complained. The campaign aide was piped back, touting Biden's disastrous immigration policy. “OK, but Biden’s helping pay rent for newcomers to America from around the world,” the campaign aide responded. The voter was not impressed, saying “You mean, illegal immigrants? I’m struggling to pay my bills, but Biden’s paying rent for illegals? They get handouts, and I’m paying for it.” The voter added, “Things were better before Biden. I’m voting for Trump!” Arenge showed screenshots from the Google Ad library showing that Google had removed the ad for an alleged unnamed "policy violation." The campaign appealed the action and popular X accounts including journalist Ian Miles Cheong and author Dinesh D'Souza decried the censorship on X, which seems to have prompted Google to reverse its actions. When MRC Free Speech America reached out to the company, a Google spokesperson claimed that the ads were censored in error. "This enforcement decision was made in error – it was appealed by the advertiser and quickly overturned upon further review, in line with standard practice. This ad is currently running."

Google Ads has banned this ad from running. Why is that? pic.twitter.com/rPkEeY14hL

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) May 4, 2024