A federal judge on Sunday ordered the Trump administration to immediately pull TV ads that promote the president and were paid for with about $19 million in taxpayer money. The ruling came hours before the administration said the ads would stop anyway, and the judge said that didn’t matter.
U.S. District Judge Jennifer Rochon in Manhattan granted a temporary restraining order sought by the watchdog group Common Cause, a New York labor union and an Alabama state House candidate. She found they were likely to win their argument that the ads broke federal law, NBC News reported.
What were the taxpayer-funded Trump ads?
The administration made at least 13 campaign-style videos and labeled them “public service announcements.” The money, $20 million, came from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, part of the Department of Homeland Security. A DHS official said in a sworn statement that an ad agency had already bought airtime through Sunday at a cost of about $19 million, CNN reported. The ads ran on networks including CBS, CNN, MS NOW and Fox News.
CNN reported Trump personally helped pick the images and video, and that at least one ad was produced by a pro-Trump meme group. After a bipartisan backlash, Trump said on October 5 he’d pay for the “Patriotic Ads” himself with money from his super PAC. Six days later, the taxpayer-funded ads were still on the air, and the administration hasn’t said it will pay back what was already spent.
What did the judge order?
Rochon ordered the government to “cancel or cause to be cancelled” any remaining ads, including ones set to air Sunday night, and barred DHS from spending more money to “develop, create, disseminate, place, distribute, publish, or air” them. The Justice Department had argued the order wasn’t needed because the ads “will not continue past tomorrow.” Rochon disagreed. The order lasts 14 days unless extended, so the administration would need the court’s permission to start them again before the November 3 midterms.
Watchdogs say the ads violated appropriations laws that ban spending federal money on propaganda or partisan messaging. The Democratic National Committee filed a separate lawsuit. “We are pleased the court acted swiftly to prevent more taxpayer dollars from being used for such blatantly unlawful political propaganda,” the plaintiffs said.
The BeezLoop Take
Running ads that praise the president a month before an election, with money taken from the border agency, isn’t a public service announcement. It’s a campaign ad that taxpayers paid for. Republicans would call it corruption if a Democratic administration did it, and they’d be right.
The judge’s order came too late to stop most of the damage: $19 million is already spent. The real test is whether anyone is held accountable for spending it. Trump said he’d cover the ads himself. He should pay back the Treasury, too.
The open question: will Congress demand the $19 million back, or let it slide until after the election?
Also on BeezLoop: the Justice Department opened an antitrust probe into TV networks over their White House boycott, and Trump’s late-night Truth Social posts.
Sources: CNN · NBC News · UPI · Associated Press (video)
