President Donald Trump refused to reimburse taxpayers for ads promoting his presidency, including a rerun of a 2024 campaign spot, hours after vowing to pay for the ads himself.
A White House spokesperson confirmed to the Washington Examiner on Tuesday that Trump will not pay back the federal government for money already spent on the ads.
Trump’s super political action committee, MAGA Inc., has confirmed it is paying for upcoming ads, the Examiner reported.
“The President’s Truth [Social post] was not referring to reimbursement,” the spokesperson told the Examiner when asked whether Trump is “paying back the money already” spent on the ads.
Trump made the pledge Monday evening in a post on Truth Social, after more than a week of bipartisan criticism of the taxpayer-funded ads praising him, Politico reported.
“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 wrote. “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.”
One of the taxpayer-funded spots appears nearly identical to a video Trump posted on Truth Social in January 2024 during his presidential campaign, CNN reported.
“We will cast out the communists, Marxists, and fascists,” Trump declares in the ad, which shows him walking down a hallway as his recorded voice says “this is the final battle,” according to CNN.
The campaign version ended with Trump’s campaign logo and a number to text, while the White House version displays the words “Paid for by the US Government” at the end, CNN reported.
The ads were initially paid for with $20 million in Department of Homeland Security funding, The New York Times reported, according to Politico. The Times has also reported that Trump personally told his budget director to use taxpayer money for the ads, according to CNBC.
“The ad is educational and unapologetically patriotic,” a White House spokesperson said of the first taxpayer-funded spot in a statement, CNN reported.
“I don’t think any public official, including President Trump or Kristi Noem or John Kennedy, should spend public money on private ads for themselves,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) said Sunday on CBS News, according to Politico.
“I love my POTUS but he couldn’t be more out of touch,” one Republican operative wrote in a text to Politico. “His term has been so awful that we have to save candidates in Kansas and Alabama but we’re gonna admit to wasting tax dollars on ads hyping him up.”
Democrats have said the ads violate federal laws against using taxpayer money for “publicity or propaganda purposes,” Politico reported.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. George Whitesides (D-CA) asked two federal watchdogs to investigate the ads last week, according to a statement from Judiciary Committee Democrats.
They asked the Government Accountability Office, which reviews federal spending for Congress, to find the source and total amount of taxpayer money spent on the ads, the statement said.
They also asked the Office of Special Counsel to investigate possible violations of the Hatch Act, which bars federal employees from using their official power to interfere in an election. The president is exempt from that law, but the staff who helped create, approve or distribute the ads are not, according to the statement.
GAO confirmed it received the lawmakers’ request, the Daily Beast reported.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, filed his own complaint with both agencies Monday after more of the ads aired during NFL games on Sunday, according to his office.
Raskin is poised to lead the House Judiciary Committee if Democrats win the House majority in November, MS NOW reported.
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