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 that a U.S. president has had Super PACs - political action committees 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, actively working to support him after the dust of campaigning has cleared.
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.
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