WASHINGTON—“God made Trump.”
That campaign TV ad, released with two others on September 23, has produced a bipartisan, bicameral uproar in and out of D.C., especially since its last line, in very small type, reads “Paid for by the U.S. government.”
Not only is the ad borderline blasphemous, but it comes after a prior anti-communist and pro-fascist ad, also paid for with $20 million of taxpayer dollars, are yet to come.
This has leading congressional Democrats who sit on committees that control White House spending, plus Public Citizen, plus CNN, up in arms.
The White House ordered the ads, and Trump’s Office of Management and Budget OK’d the spending out of a Homeland Security Department “Special Events Fund.” Trump’s backers at the White House press office blandly call the ads “public service announcements” praising patriotism.
The general reaction to that explanation ranges from disbelief to outrage.
And the whole sequence of 13 ads, coming at the height of this year’s election campaign, produced demands for investigations, firings of the Trump government officials involved, and that the ads be yanked, pronto. Unions and broadcasters, however, have yet to weigh in on the controversy.
Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Jack Reed, D-R.I., and Reps. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., and Steny Hoyer, D-Md., told White House Chief of Staff Susie Miles the ads misuse money Congress earmarked for Customs enforcement and the Border Patrol. Miles is one of the reputed few people who can say “no” to her dictatorial right-wing boss and make it stick.
In a separate letter to two federal regulators, Public Citizen flatly says the use of federal dollars for the campaign ads violates the Hatch Act, the 1939 federal law that limits political activism on government time and the taxpayers’ dime by both officeholders and civil servants.
The warnings from the lawmakers to Miles carry unstated clout.
DeLauro and Murray are Democratic leaders of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees and the panels’ former committee chairs. If Democrats retake Congress on November 3, they’ll be chairs again. Hoyer, who is retiring, and Reed are the top Democrats on Appropriations subcommittees, which handle the money bill covering the White House. The panels could retroactively cut the money flow.
One “ad celebrates President Trump with a montage of photos of him and the American flag as singers repeat the words ‘love me’ from JMSN’s song ‘Love Me,’” the four lawmakers wrote to Miles. “If President Trump wants people to love him, he can pay for it himself.”
Unsaid: With weeks to go before the mid-term election, Trump’s Make America Great Again campaign finance committee has approximately $400 million available to plow into GOP races. It, not the government, could easily have paid for the ads.
“This is the sort of government propaganda one would not expect in the United States of America, and it is an egregious and illegal misuse of Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars,” the four lawmakers add.
“This ad is a violation of section 718 of division E of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026, a longstanding general provision prohibiting any taxpayer funds from being used to produce government propaganda,” their detailed letter states.
“We demand you immediately take this ad off the air and appropriately reprimand and discipline the employees who knowingly violated federal law in working on and paying for this advertisement. In addition, we demand a full account and breakdown of all federal funds used to create and air this ad.
“As you are aware, this is not the first time this administration has violated anti-propaganda law. It is unconscionable that repeated violations of appropriations law continue to occur during this administration, and those violations underscore the failure of the Office of Management and Budget to safeguard taxpayer funding and to consistently and faithfully ensure compliance with the law. No taxpayer funding should be used to air this outrageous propaganda.”
In a similar letter to the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission, Public Citizen cites the Hatch Act violations and says the top ad is basically an updated rerun of a 2024 Trump presidential campaign ad. It also provided some details of the ad’s content. A second Public Citizen letter asks the non-partisan Government Accountability Office to investigate the mess.
Even some Republicans are upset. “Don’t worry, using taxpayer dollars to run ominous campaign ads of the president has been done before and is completely legal…in banana republics,” Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., told Time magazine. Trump pushed and campaigned for a local supporter who beat Massie—a frequent Trump critic—in the GOP primary there earlier this year.
CNN and Public Citizen also provided other details of the ads, besides the “God made Trump” line.
Trump barred CNN, Politico and MSNOW—formerly MSNBC—from the White House because they wouldn’t genuflect and carry his statements and press conferences without questions and challenges. A federal judge ordered Trump’s press office to let them back in. He did, but barred CNN again.
“America will never be a communist country,” one ad blares behind images of Trump.
Another ad turns apocalyptic, as his 2024 campaign ads did: “This is the final battle. With you at my side, we will demolish the deep state. We will expel the warmongers from our government.” At the end, that notice, too, says the ad was “Paid for by the U.S. government.”
Never mind that the “deep state” is the government Trump presides over, or that with his invasion of Iran, he’s the warmonger, upsetting his MAGA legions.
“Broadcasters may be held liable for airing any advertisement that is in violation of federal law. Federal law explicitly prohibits using appropriated public funds for government propaganda, self-aggrandizement, or partisan political advertising. Yet, that is exactly the nature of Trump’s recent campaign ads that began airing on Sept. 23, 2026,” Public Citizen wrote to the two agencies.
“Furthermore, Donald Trump is not a candidate for any elective office. The FCC and broadcasters are not constrained by the special rule protecting candidate advertisements. Although the White House contends these ads are ‘public service announcements,’ and therefore may be paid for with taxpayer dollars, none of these ads meet the standard of a public service announcement.”
No paywalls at People’s World
We hope you appreciated this article. At People’s World, we believe news and information should be free and accessible to all, but we need your help. Our journalism is free of corporate influence and paywalls because we are totally reader-supported. Only you, our readers and supporters, make this possible. If you enjoy reading People’s World and the stories we bring you, please support our work by donating or becoming a monthly sustainer today. Thank you!
CONTRIBUTOR
