Trump does not plan to reimburse taxpayers for controversial promotional ads
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer slammed Trump for not committing to reimbursement and said the president’s plan for covering future costs may represent illegal coordination with his super PAC.
A day after President Donald Trump said his super political action committee would pay for television ads promoting him that had been funded by taxpayers, White House officials said the group did not plan to reimburse the government for the more than $10 million it had already spent on the ads.
Trump announced on Monday evening that he was planning to have his super PAC, MAGA Inc., pay for the ads, which had drawn backlash from members of both parties. The White House officials later said that his promise would only apply “moving forward.”
Then, on Tuesday, a new taxpayer-funded ad — bragging about the U.S. success in taking out Venezuela’s former leader Nicolás Maduro — began airing on television. The new ad features Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Officials in both parties have criticized the ads, which are being aired amid a heated midterm campaign. And some have said they could violate federal laws for using taxpayer funds for “publicity or propaganda purposes.” One of the ads included footage that had originally appeared in a 2024 Trump campaign video.
Facing backlash for the use of public funds for the promotional ads, Trump appeared to retreat Monday, posting a message on Truth Social while en route to a rally in Nebraska. He wrote, “I have decided to do the Patriotic Ads, among others, and pay for them myself, and with money I raised for MAGA, Inc.”
A White House spokesperson said Tuesday that “the president’s Truth was not referring to reimbursement.”
When Trump posted the message, more than $10 million of such ads had run, according to AdImpact, the ad-tracking service.
When Trump was asked Tuesday if he would reimburse the government for the ads, he demurred and defended them as “promotion for the country” and said “we’ll decide.”
As of midday Tuesday, nearly $11.5 million has run, including a small sum for the new 60-second ad about the Venezuela operation. So far about $17,000 had been spent on the new ad, which began airing in the early hours of the day.
Most of the funds so far — $7.2 million — have paid for an ad that reused material from his 2024 campaign that casts Trump’s detractors as “villains.”
The ads are running nationally on cable and network television and are paid for through a $20 million contract that uses funds from the Department of Homeland Security. Trump personally instructed his budget director to use taxpayer money for TV ads.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called for an investigation into the payments for the ads. “It’s not enough to simply have his super PAC slush fund foot the bill — an illegal action itself,” he said in a statement. “Trump must return this money to the American people and there must be a full investigation into this gross waste and abuse of taxpayer dollars.”
The White House did not respond to questions about whether the administration was canceling any or all of the remaining money planned on the ads. The White House also did not answer questions about whether Trump planned to have his super PAC pay for ads that have run after his post Monday.
But the declaration from the president is a rare reversal in a second administration in which Trump has governed by gut instinct and a refusal to accept norms or most limits on executive power. The ads drew criticism from Democrats and some Republicans as an inappropriate use of taxpayer dollars; the spots tend to glorify the president rather than focus on any specific policy item.
As of now, the majority of ads that MAGA Inc. appears to be funding has been run through two newly created super PACs linked to it, with different names.
