DEMOCRACY WATCHWhen Government Websites Become Campaign Tools: Blaming the Shutdown on Democrats Has Legal and Political Risks
Many airports refused to show DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s message to passengers about the shutdown because it wasn’t much more than naked partisan propaganda. Since January 2025, federal communication systems –agency websites, automated emails, and public information portals –have been used not to inform, but to persuade. Each such incident may violate the Hatch Act, but collectively, they amount to a systematic campaign to transform nonpartisan federal agencies into partisan political messengers. And what sets the 2025 messaging apart isn’t just the volume and tone–it’s the scale, the coordination, and the brazenness of its political targeting.
For decades, federal shutdowns have mostly been budget fights. The 2025 one has become bigger than that: It’s turned into a messaging war.
Official government communications, including website banners, out-of-office email replies and autogenerated responses that denounce “Senate Democrats,” “the Radical Left” or “Democrats’ $1.5 trillion wishlist” for closing the government, mark a sharp break from past practice.
These messages are more than rhetorical escalation. Many may violate the Hatch Act, the 1939 statute that limits partisan political activity by federal employees and agencies. They also represent new tests for how far a White House can push the bounds of campaign-style messaging while also claiming to govern.
In any democracy, power lies not only in who writes the laws or signs the budgets but in who shapes the story. Communication is not an afterthought or byproduct of governance. It is one of its essential instruments. Political narrative helps citizens understand who’s responsible, who’s acting in good faith and who’s to blame.
The 2025 shutdown has turned that truth into strategy. Federal communication systems – agency websites, automated emails and public information portals – are being used to persuade rather than inform. It’s a move that is both politically risky and legally perilous.
Serve the Public, Not a Party
The Hatch Act was passed during the Great Depression, after years of concern that federal agencies were being used improperly as political machines. Its goal was simple: to ensure that public servants worked for the American people, not for the party in power.
At its core, the Hatch Act prohibits executive branch federal employees – except for the president and vice president – from engaging in partisan political activity as part of their official duties or under their official authority. Government workers may not use their positions or public resources to influence elections, coerce individual behavior or engage in political advocacy.
The law requires federal agencies to avoid the partisan fray and focus on serving the public rather than political agendas.
The Office of Special Counsel, which enforces the law, has been clear on this point. “The purpose of the Act,” says an Office of Special Counsel guide written for federal employees, “is to maintain a federal workforce that is free from partisan political influence or coersion.” Government communication can inform, but it cannot campaign.
