White House Defends Using Taxpayer Money To Run Trump Ad — Even Though It’s Nearly The Same As 2024 Campaign Spot

The Trump White House is defending spending taxpayer dollars to run a series of ads that have drawn criticism on both sides of the aisle as they resemble campaign spots.

In fact, an ad featuring Trump that ran over the weekend is nearly the same as one that he posted on social media in 2023, as he was campaigning for a return to the presidency. The ad that ran over the weekend features the message, “Paid for by the U.S. Government.” The spot he posted in 2023 features the Turmp campaign logo.

In the spot from the weekend and from his campaign, Trump says that “this is the final battle. With you at my side, we will demolish the deep state. We will expel the warmongers from our government. We will drive out the globalists. We will cast out the communists, marxists and fascists. We will throw off the sick political class that hates our country. We will rout the fake news media and we will liberate America from these villains, once and for all.”

Steven Cheung, White House communications director, posted on X on Sunday, “Don’t let the Fake News get away with their lies about our epic Public Service Announcements that have been running on tv.”

But there has been criticism from both parties. Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) said that “you can’t spend public money to promote yourself.” He added that “I may end up with a sombrero on my head, but I also think that we ought to have a rule that no politician can have a building named after him while he’s alive.”

Kennedy’s reference to a sombrero was to Trump pushing out a deepfake video last fall of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Trump also has sought to put his name on the Kennedy Center, even though Congress designated it as a memorial to the late president.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) posted on X, “Don’t worry, using taxpayer dollars to run ominous campaign ads of the President has been done before and is completely legal… in banana republics.”

About $319,000 has been spent on the spot, according to the AP, citing figures from AdImpact.

Two other spots began running last week.

The White House sent out a release on Friday contending that the spots “are very clearly not campaign ads; President Trump is not on the ballot and there is no call to action. Instead, the announcements are a reminder for Americans to love their country and know why it’s worth defending — at home, at the border, and abroad.”

Federal law bars appropriations from being used for “publicity or propaganda” purposes, but there has been some leeway for the use of taxpayer money for public service announcements on specific issues. The White House pointed to spots by the Obama administration to promote the Affordable Care Act and the Biden administration to spread the word about the Covid vaccine. But the latest Trump spot is centered on Trump himself, not a single issue, and largely mirrors the previous campaign ad.

Margaret Dylus-Yukins, legal counsel for ethics at the Campaign Legal Center, said in a statement, “Federal law prohibits taxpayer resources from being used for the benefit of a candidate, political party or public official. These ads almost entirely revolve around President Trump, who is not a candidate, but who has told voters to act as if he is on the ballot in November. The latest ad is a complete republication of a 2024 Trump campaign ad, and the earlier ad echoes themes and messages that Republicans are pushing this election; neither has any apparent connection to any federal program or service.”

She added, “At a minimum, this is an appalling abuse of taxpayer dollars, particularly when hundreds of millions of private dollars are already flowing into U.S. elections—and Trump has personally helped raise enormous sums from wealthy special interests for a super PAC devoted to advancing his political agenda.”

The U.S. Government is up on TV with this spot —

It aired nationally on FOX yesterday during Illinois at #7 Ohio State and also during Fox News Sunday this morning pic.twitter.com/8PP9FPzUZk

— Medium Buying (@MediumBuying) September 27, 2026