Ads promoting President Trump and his policies continued to be paid for by the U.S. government well after Trump announced he would have his MAGA Inc. super PAC take over funding the ads and kept airing despite a federal judge ordering them to come down.
An NPR analysis of data from AdImpact finds that nearly $22 million in taxpayer dollars has been spent to air the ads since the campaign began in late September. Nearly $10 million of that total was spent after Oct. 5, when the president pledged to fund it privately in a post on Truth Social.
"The Radical Left is upset with the fact that I am taking Ads, which I consider to be a positive promotion for our Great U.S.A., and paying for them with U.S.A. money," Trump posted at the time. "This is a rather standard thing to do but, rather than doing that, although nothing will make them happy, I have decided to do the Patriotic Ads, among others, and pay for them myself, and with money I raised for MAGA, Inc."
The ads have been criticized by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle with Republicans praising the president's choice to shift funding for the ads to an outside super PAC. But, that praise was premature. Despite giving the impression that there'd been a policy change, the government-funded ads didn't stop airing after Trump's post.
The White House has repeatedly referred to the ads as public service announcements, but a lawsuit filed by Common Cause and others argued they were being funded without congressional approval and violated restrictions on publicity and propaganda produced with taxpayer dollars.
The ads — five of them in all — cover a wide range of pro-Trump content. One includes a splashy montage of photos of the president with a chorus singing "love me" serving as the soundtrack. Another is an exact duplicate of an ad made by the Trump campaign during the 2024 election cycle. Two promote the military operations in Venezuela and Iran. All of them end with the words "Paid for by the U.S. Government" on the screen.
The spots continued being broadcast for several hours after a federal judge overseeing the lawsuit issued a temporary ruling Sunday night saying the government "shall cancel or cause to be cancelled any slot, placement, reservation, or arrangement for the airing or dissemination of the challenged advertisements, including those placements for the evening of October 11, 2026."
Pro-Trump spots aired hundreds of additional times Sunday night into the wee hours of Monday morning.
"The last PSAs paid for by the government aired yesterday evening," a White House official not authorized to speak publicly told NPR on Monday afternoon, adding that the government "did not receive notice from the court in time to cancel the ad buys. The PSAs will be paid for by outside groups moving forward."
The White House had previously said that taxpayer funds used for ads would not be reimbursed. The White House has also insisted these ads were merely about promoting patriotism. They argued the ads can't be campaign related because the president isn't running for office this year and have nothing to do with the midterm elections next month. But Trump has repeatedly implored voters to vote like he is on the ballot and his dismal approval ratings have been dragging down Republicans all over the country.
A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll found the ads are pretty unpopular. The poll asked whether it is appropriate or inappropriate to use "taxpayer funds to pay for election-related television ads featuring the President or members of his cabinet." It wasn't even close, with 86% of Americans saying it is inappropriate. Even 80% of Republicans said the ads were inappropriate.
It's rare to get such bipartisan agreement on anything these days.
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