Trump Influenced Creation of his Propaganda Ads

Oct 10, 2026 02:42 PM EDT, Sat

The White House’s election ads were shaped by Trump personally

The president offered his first real defense for the publicly funded campaign propaganda. It did not go especially well.

By Steve Benen

Oct. 1, 2026, 11:53 AM EDT

It’s tempting to think Donald Trump would have plenty on his plate right now, but The Wall Street Journal reported (and MS NOW confirmed) that the president recently took time out of his schedule to personally oversee the creation of three propagandistic campaign ads, which are being financed entirely by American taxpayers and which appear to ignore federal law prohibiting the use of public funds for “propaganda purposes.”

In light of the fact that ethics lawyers have used phrases such as “impeachable offense” when discussing the burgeoning scandal, it’s notable that Trump won’t be able to simply blame overzealous aides for this obvious and legally dubious misuse of public money.

With this in mind, a reporter asked Trump at an unrelated White House event on Wednesday why American taxpayers should foot the bill for his campaign ads ahead of the midterm elections.

“Well, I’m not running for office, first of all, and so, the ads are, you know, given by me, but I’m not running for office,” the president replied, adding, “I’m not promoting myself because I’m not running for office.”

The idea that the commercials, which have run on MS NOW, aren’t promoting Trump is obviously bonkers. All three of the ads are clearly intended to glorify the president, and one of them was literally a Trump campaign ad two years ago.

The underlying shell game isn’t exactly sophisticated: An incumbent president, fearing voter backlash and desperate to boost enthusiasm among his MAGA base, is using taxpayer money for propagandistic campaign ads as the early voting window opens — all while telling the electorate to “pretend” that his name isn’t on 2026 ballots.

Trump may not literally be “running for office” this year, but that doesn’t magically make the abuse any less outrageous. (Even several congressional Republicans have conceded the White House went too far on this one.)

Congressional Democrats appear unlikely to let this go. Politico reported:

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD8), who is poised to lead the panel if Democrats win the majority in November, joined California Democratic Rep. George Whitesides (D-CA27) in sending a letter to the Government Accountability Office and the Office of Special Counsel. It asks the GAO to investigate the “source, accounts, and total amount of taxpayer funds used by the Executive Office of the President to produce and distribute this advertisement across major television markets and official White House social media channels.”

The lawmakers also asked the Office of Special Counsel to investigate whether the ads “paid for by millions of dollars of taxpayer funds, constitute a violation of the Hatch Act, and determine who should be held accountable.”

“These ads constitute an illegal use of taxpayer funds, perhaps best demonstrated by the fact that they are virtually identical to the ones Donald Trump used during his 2024 presidential campaign, and in fact use the same footage and the same inept ideological messaging,” Raskin and Whitesides contended.

On the other end of Capitol Hill, Sens. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Chris Murphy (D-CT) — the top Democrats on the Senate Appropriations Committee and the Homeland Security Committee’s appropriations subcommittee, respectively — wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin regarding reports that the agency has redirected $20 million in funding originally intended for Customs and Border Protection to “bankroll the obscene political ads.”

To date, the price tag for these campaign ads is nearing at least $2.5 million, which is coming from money the Republicans’ domestic policy megabill had directed to Customs and Border Protection. The problem might very well get worse before it gets better: The Associated Press reported that the Department of Homeland Security has “tapped $20 million” to pay for the campaign ads, and the administration has given every indication that the abuse of taxpayer money will intensify as Election Day draws closer.

This post updates our related earlier coverage.

Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”

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