President Donald Trump made the right call Monday. After several days of criticism over taxpayer-funded television ads featuring him, Trump said the government will stop paying for them; he’ll either pay personally or use money from a MAGA political committee.
From Reuters:
Trump's MAGA Inc political action committee has about $400 million. A White House official who spoke on condition of anonymity told Reuters that going forward the ads would be paid for by the PAC.
Lawmakers have questioned whether public funds are being used to promote Trump politically, while other critics say the spots may violate longstanding restrictions on government propaganda and political activity.
Democratic lawmakers said last month that the White House transferred $20 million in Homeland Security Department funds to air the ads, including one that closely resembles a 2024 Trump ?campaign ad, and sought independent probes.
The ads themselves aren’t what bother me; one promotes the “golden age of America,” while another says America will never become a communist country. A third closely resembles a 2024 Trump campaign spot warning about globalists and warmongers.
I have no problem with Trump making those arguments, but I have a problem with sending the bill to people who may despise every word of them.
The three ads had already cost taxpayers more than $1.4 million, with the actual price total potentially higher. Each ended with the line “Paid for by the U.S. Government.” The White House defended them as public service announcements and pointed to earlier administrations that used government money to promote Medicare changes, Obamacare subsidies, and the Kung Flu vaccination campaigns.
But that defense has a problem: those earlier ads were tied to specific government programs. Trump’s spots offered broader political messages praising his presidency and his view of America. One was virtually identical to a campaign ad from 2024. With the midterms only weeks away, the line between public service and political promotion had become awfully thin.
Federal budget records made the arrangement even harder to defend. Money was moved into a Customs and Border Protection account for “commemorative events,” followed by a $20 million contract for a national media campaign. Nobody is claiming all $20 million had already been spent on these three spots, but federal money clearly didn’t need to be anywhere near campaign-style advertising.
Democrats predictably screamed about propaganda, but this wasn’t merely another partisan pile-on. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said taxpayers shouldn’t pay for the ads. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said he wouldn’t have done it. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said public officials shouldn’t spend public money on private advertisements for themselves.
They were right, and conservatives should be especially comfortable saying so. We spend an awful lot of time arguing that Washington wastes money, abuses appropriations, and treats the Treasury like a political checking account.
Those principles can’t disappear when our guy controls the pen.
If an advertisement is political enough that a campaign committee comfortably pays for it, there’s no good reason to make taxpayers pay first. Trump has access to enormous political fundraising resources, and the idea that Americans needed to finance television spots promoting his record never made much sense.
Legal experts have also raised questions about federal restrictions on using appropriated money for publicity or propaganda and rules governing partisan political activity by government employees. No court has ruled these advertisements illegal, and Trump hasn’t conceded anything of the sort.
He’s still calling them a positive promotion of America.
Fine, keep running them, and run more if Trump’s political operation thinks they work. Tell Americans communism is poison, celebrate the country’s 250th anniversary, defend the administration’s record, and make the political case as aggressively as Trump wants.
Just use political money to do it.
Republicans publicly objected. Trump heard them and changed course. Washington politicians have elevated doubling down into an art form, especially when admitting a mistake might cost them half a news cycle.
Trump chose the easier and better answer: taxpayers are done paying.
Good. He should’ve made that call from the beginning, but he still deserves credit for making it now.