45 Committee

The 45 Committee operated as a pro-Trump super PAC, an independent political action committee dedicated to advocating for the presidential appointments of the Trump administration. Its core function centered on influencing the Senate confirmation process for Cabinet nominees through paid advertising campaigns. The organization invested significant resources in producing and disseminating promotional video content that supported specific individuals under consideration for high-level positions. Backed by prominent donors, the PAC's activities were part of a broader effort to shape public opinion and apply pressure during contentious nomination battles. Its work placed it within the ecosystem of political advocacy groups seeking to sway the composition of the executive branch. The committee's focus was explicitly on bolstering the administration's choices for key roles, making the confirmation process a primary arena for its operations. By targeting these political contests, it aimed to facilitate the installation of officials aligned with the president's agenda. The PAC's strategy relied on media outreach to counteract opposition and build support for nominees facing scrutiny. Its existence highlighted the role of external spending groups in modern confirmation fights, operating independently from the official campaign or party structures. The organization's footprint was defined by its advertising buys and digital presence rather than a large physical staff or membership base.

A defining event for the 45 Committee was the hacking and defacement of its website on February 6, 2017. Attackers gained control of the site and altered its content, inserting political graffiti such as the phrase "Make America S****y Again" and "Black Lives Matter" annotations on embedded videos. The perpetrators specifically targeted the PAC's advocacy materials, renaming promotional videos for Cabinet nominees with critical labels like "Steve Bannon is a White Supremacist" and "Sessions is Deemed Too Racist to be a Federal Judge." This direct manipulation of its nominee-support content forced the organization to temporarily disable its website to contain the breach. The committee publicly confirmed the security incident, acknowledging the unauthorized changes. The hack served as a high-profile disruption of its digital operations, directly attacking the messaging central to its mission of supporting presidential appointments. The choice of altered video titles indicated an attempt to sabotage the PAC's political advocacy by associating its backed nominees with controversial and racist characterizations. This incident underscored the vulnerability of political organizations' online platforms to ideologically motivated cyberattacks. The event drew media attention to the 45 Committee's role in the confirmation battles, as the hackers' edits explicitly referenced the very nominees the group was promoting. The breach represented a tangible intersection of cybersecurity threats and political campaigning for super PACs engaged in heated nomination fights.