Federal judge bars Trump administration from airing publicly funded ads
The commercials ran on network and cable television and were paid for through a $20 million contract from the Department of Homeland Security.
A federal judge on Sunday evening ordered the Trump administration to stop airing taxpayer-funded ads that had drawn widespread backlash for their explicit glorification of President Donald Trump.
The commercials ran on network and cable television and were paid for through a $20 million contract from the Department of Homeland Security. One bragged about the capture of the former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. Another echoed a campaign video from 2024 that denounced political enemies of Trump as “villains.”
A coalition of liberal organizations sued the administration over the ads last week in federal court. In a four-page order, Judge Jennifer L. Rochon of U.S. District Court in Manhattan, who was appointed by President Joe Biden, wrote that the administration must cancel any “slot, placement, reservation, or arrangement for the airing or dissemination of the challenged advertisements.”
In a statement, Democracy Forward, which represented the coalition that had sued to stop the airing of the ads, praised Rochon for preventing “more taxpayer dollars from being used for such blatantly unlawful political propaganda.”
In a filing Saturday night, the Justice Department said that the administration had no plans to make any further ad buys, which totaled $19 million through Sunday.
The ads had run during programs and shows like “Good Morning America” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” as well as during weekend football games on Fox. Some officials had said the administration might have violated federal law by using taxpayer money for publicity or propaganda.
Along with Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are featured in the ad gloating about the capture of Maduro.
“Don’t play games with this president’s in office because it’s not gonna turn out well,” Rubio says.
Trump was personally invested in seeing the ads air. He instructed Russell T. Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, to find the money for the ads, The New York Times reported this month. In late September, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which falls under DHS, awarded a contract to a Maryland marketing firm for the commercials.
Some Republicans expressed discomfort with the ads for their tone and that they were funded by taxpayers. Yet others, like Speaker Mike Johnson, defended their message as referring to “America’s greatness.”
“It wasn’t a plea to vote for anybody,” Johnson said during a campaign stop. “It was just, it was pro-Americana.”
Trump announced last week that his super PAC, MAGA Inc., would pay for the ads. But the next day, White House officials said that would apply only “moving forward” and that Trump would not reimburse taxpayers for what had already been spent.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
