Since Wednesday, September 23, a 30-second TV ad has been airing on Fox News, Newsmax and CBS. It's a fast-cut montage of Donald Trump at rallies, White House events, ball games and with troops, set to a singer repeating "love me, love me, love me." A caption reads "AMERICA WILL NEVER BE A COMMUNIST COUNTRY." It ends with UFC boss Dana White calling Trump "the toughest, most resilient person that I've ever met."

At the bottom of the screen: "Paid for by the US Government."

That's you. You paid for it.

Update, September 30: We now know where the money came from — $20 million that Republicans' budget bill gave to Customs and Border Protection. Details below.

Update, October 11: A federal judge has ordered the ads off the air. Details below.

How much

Ad tracker AdImpact says the government has spent at least $430,000 running the ad in markets across the country. The Associated Press reported that the real total "could be significantly more," depending on how networks classified it.

On Friday, the White House put out a second one, a minute long and narrated by Trump over footage of Mount Rushmore and his July Fourth speech. "This is only the beginning of the golden age of America," he says. It aired on Newsmax. What that one cost isn't known yet.

Where the money came from

On September 29, Democratic appropriators and The Wall Street Journal revealed how the ads were paid for. The timeline, as NOTUS reported it:

• September 19: The White House budget office gave Customs and Border Protection $20 million for "OBBBA commemorative events" — money from Trump's 2025 budget bill.
• September 20: CBP's public affairs office awarded an ad company, LMD Agency Inc., a $20 million contract for a "national media campaign."
• September 23: The first ad started airing on Fox News and Newsmax.

That's $20 million from the border agency's budget, handed to an ad agency three days before the Trump ads began. There are now three of them, each labeled "Paid for by the U.S. Government."

Why route it through the border agency? Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, explained it. The regular spending bill for the White House already has a restriction that "would have prohibited that," she told NOTUS. "That's why the administration went around the appropriations process and used an account that was part of the reconciliation bill" — the budget bill Republicans passed on a party-line vote.

Citing unnamed sources, the Journal reported that "Trump personally pushed for the ads and has been involved in their creation," according to Common Dreams.

Sens. Patty Murray and Chris Murphy, the top Democrats on the relevant spending committees, called it "this outrageous scheme" and said that "using government funding to create or air political ads" is "illegal and a shockingly corrupt misuse of taxpayer dollars." Murphy put it more bluntly: "This is a banana republic in which the president is just blatantly stealing taxpayer money to run political ads."

Even Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a Republican, called the ads "a great message" that "shouldn't be paid for by taxpayer dollars."

And the singer whose song carries the first ad wants out. Lawyers for Christian Berishaj, who performs as JMSN, demanded the administration pull it from TV and the internet. He "would never authorize my music to be used for ANY political agenda or campaign," he said.

The White House's excuse

The White House calls the ads "public service announcements" meant to remind Americans "to love their country." A spokesperson called the first one "educational and unapologetically patriotic."

Presidents have run real public service announcements before. Former presidents taped one together in 2021 urging people to get COVID vaccines. The Obama White House ran one against sexual assault. As Mother Jones points out, those ads were about something other than the president. "Usually, a public service announcement announces something," it wrote. This one is a montage of Trump.

What the law says

Federal spending law, including the funding bill Trump signed this year, bans using public money for unauthorized "publicity or propaganda." The Government Accountability Office has said that covers communications whose obvious purpose is "self-aggrandizement" or "puffery," and communications that are "purely partisan," Common Dreams reported.

The consumer watchdog Public Citizen has filed a complaint with the GAO. Sen. Maggie Hassan wrote to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles that the ad "does not have a clear official government purpose and appears to run afoul of federal prohibitions against the use of appropriated funds as part of 'a general propaganda effort designed to aid a political party or candidates.'"

Even some Republicans say it's wrong

It isn't only Democrats objecting. "It's not like they need a GoFundMe page to have the dollars to do that sort of ad, and they could do it. But using taxpayer dollars, it feels like Viktor Orbán," North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis told reporters, naming Hungary's former strongman prime minister. Louisiana Republican Sen. John Kennedy said: "I don't generally like to see politicians use public money to pay for their own campaign ads."

Trump isn't on the ballot this November. The Republicans who run Congress on his record are. The ad began running about six weeks before Election Day.

Update, October 11: a judge ordered the ads off the air

On October 11, Judge Jennifer L. Rochon of the federal court in Manhattan blocked the administration from using the $20 million to "fund the development, creation, and/or airing of the advertisements," The Washington Sun reported. She ordered the government to cancel every scheduled airing, "including those placements for the evening of October 11, 2026," and froze the contract with the ad firm, LMD Agency. The order lasts two weeks.

The case was brought by Common Cause, a nonpartisan watchdog group, which sued the Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday, October 7. The Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Party of Wisconsin have filed two more lawsuits over the ads.

Here is what the government told the court:

• DHS's acting chief financial officer said in a sworn statement that the department used about $19 million on the LMD contract, leaving about $1 million.
• DHS said it would make no more media buys after Sunday and that leftover money "will be de-obligated."
• Common Cause pointed out that DHS itself acknowledged the ad contract "runs until September 2027," and said the government offered "no guarantee that the ads will not continue."

The ad campaign has also grown since this post first ran. CNN reported at least a dozen ads had been made. One echoes Republican talking points about communism; another promotes U.S. missile strikes on Iran.

The White House still calls them "Presidential Public service announcements" that "are nothing new." Trump has now said he'll pay for future ads himself, with money from his super PAC, MAGA Inc. — a move the Sun notes may break federal campaign finance law, which bars a president from directing a super PAC's spending. And the White House confirmed he won't pay back taxpayers for the millions already spent.

It isn't new for this party

Republicans have used public money this way closer to home too. In Georgia, we reported that Mike Collins spent $400,000 of taxpayers' money on ads that look just like his campaign's.

The short version

Four days before its first TV ad praising Trump went on the air, the White House budget office moved $20 million from Trump's budget bill into Customs and Border Protection for "commemorative events," and the next day CBP gave $20 million to an ad agency. There are now three ads, all labeled "Paid for by the US Government." Federal spending law bars using public money for propaganda or purely partisan messages, and Republican Sen. Susan Collins says the administration used the border account precisely to get around a restriction that would have blocked it. Public Citizen has filed a complaint with the GAO, and Republican Sens. Thom Tillis, John Kennedy and John Thune have all objected. On October 11 a federal judge ordered the ads off the air for two weeks, after DHS said it had already spent about $19 million on them — and the White House says Trump won't pay that back.

Source

You're Paying For Donald Trump's New Ad — Mother Jones. Update: Jenna Monnin, "Federal Judge Orders Trump Administration to End Promotional Ads" — The Washington Sun, October 11, 2026.