United States President, Donald Trump, has said he will no longer use taxpayer money to fund television advertisements promoting his administration and policies, following criticism from members of both the Democratic and Republican parties.
Trump made the announcement on Monday, saying he had decided to personally fund the advertisements and use money raised through his MAGA Inc super political action committee.
“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,” he said on social media.
Trump described the use of government funds for the advertisements as “a rather standard thing to do”, but said he had decided to pay for the “Patriotic Ads” himself and through his political action committee.
The advertisements, which have aired more than a dozen times in recent weeks, praise Trump and his policies, including his tax cuts, efforts to boost US manufacturing and his law-and-order agenda.
Some of the adverts have also attacked groups and individuals Trump considers political opponents.
In one, he says, “We will cast out the communists, Marxists, and fascists. We will throw off the sick political class that hates our country. We will rout the fake news media, and we will liberate America from these villains once and for all”.
The adverts have attracted questions over whether government funds can legally be used for material promoting a sitting president, particularly with the November midterm elections approaching.
The White House has defended the adverts as educational public service announcements rather than propaganda, citing advertisements run by previous administrations, including former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
However, legal experts have questioned the government’s justification for the spending. Legal ethics expert Margaret Dylus-Yukins told the BBC, “It’s difficult to see what legitimate government purpose is served by spending taxpayer dollars on ads whose only apparent purpose is to promote the president”.
Democratic Senator Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire introduced a measure condemning the use of government funds for the adverts, but it was blocked by a Republican senator.
The measure stated, “It is the sense of the Senate that the advertisements promoting President Donald Trump that aired in September 2026, which included the direct language ‘paid for by the U.S. Government,’ should not be paid for by the United States government,”.
The criticism has also come from Republicans. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said, “I like the message … it shouldn’t be paid for with taxpayer dollars”.
Republican Senator John Kennedy also opposed the use of public funds for promotional advertisements, saying, “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”.
