The Democratic National Committee asked a judge this week to stop reimbursement-linked Trump administration TV ads it says were paid for with a $20 million Department of Homeland Security appropriation. The suit targets spots tagged “Paid for by the U.S. Government” that kept airing after Trump shifted his explanations.
Those ads opened with weekend sports-game airings and later included promises that Trump would protect viewers from communism, along with images of the border wall. The complaint says the broadcasts use government money to support the President’s party and undermine free and fair elections.
Trump administration ads and $20 million
The lawsuit says the ads were funded by a $20 million appropriation to the Department of Homeland Security. Recent estimates put ad-buy spending at more than $12 million, leaving the scale of the remaining spending at a basic math question rather than a dispute over whether taxpayer money was in play.
Trump first said the spots were public service ads. He later said MAGA Inc. would pay for them, then said future ads would be funded by his super-PAC after a new ad about the capture of Nicolas Maduro began running.
Common Cause filed last week
Last week, Common Cause filed a separate lawsuit over the same ads. That complaint cited the appropriations language: “No part of any appropriation contained in this or any other Act shall be used directly or indirectly, including by private contractor, for publicity or propaganda purposes within the United States not heretofore authorized by Congress.”
Common Cause also said the ads “disparage issues and positions that Trump and Republican candidates have tried time and again to tie to Democratic candidates.” In the same filing, it argued that, despite the White House’s position, “these ads are not public-service announcements—they are personal publicity and political propaganda through and through.”
Cynthia Brown and the court fight
Cynthia Brown said, “The U.S. government is not supposed to be in the business of putting out ads that have political propaganda.” Her comment matches the legal fight now moving through the courts: one case by the Democratic National Committee, another by Common Cause, and the same question of whether federal appropriations can be used for national TV ads carrying a political message.
The Democratic National Committee lawsuit says, “This use of Congressional appropriations for partisan purposes violates the clear command of federal law.” It also says, “Fundamentally, the ads undermine free and fair elections.” A judge will decide whether to halt the ads before more airings reach viewers.
