Paid for.

Sen. Adam Schiff’s office reported that the Agriculture Department spent $16,400 on two banners of Trump and Abraham Lincoln, and the Labor Department about $6,000 on banners including Trump’s portrait over the words “American Workers First.” A third contract, $33,726 at Health and Human Services, paid for “Make America Healthy Again” signs. Schiff called the spending illegal, citing prohibitions in federal spending laws since 1951 on taxpayer spending “for publicity or propaganda purposes.”

The Labor Department said its banners were made for Labor Day and the country’s 250th anniversary. The White House called Schiff a “serial liar.”

Work crews hung a banner with Trump’s portrait and the words “Make America Safe Again” on the headquarters of the Justice Department. A department spokesperson: “We are proud at this Department of Justice to celebrate 250 years of our great country and our historic work to make America safe again at President Trump’s direction.” Former Republican Rep. Barbara Comstock: “Nothing says Justice is Blind like hanging a Dear Leader Banner at DOJ.”

Trump fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem after a scandal over a $220 million taxpayer-funded advertising campaign that featured her on horseback. The biggest no-bid contract went to a firm incorporated days before it was awarded. Noem had testified that Trump approved the campaign. A White House spokesperson told NBC News: “POTUS did not sign off on a $220 MILLION dollar ad campaign. Absolutely not.”

After cryptic teaser videos on its official accounts, the White House released an app with live-streamed briefings, press releases presented as news and an ICE tip line. CNBC reported that it “curates favorable news articles” and left out unfavorable data, such as rising oil prices.

The federal chief information officer asked agencies to push the app onto government-issued phones. The FAA told its staff it “will automatically install ‘The White House’ application on all FAA-issued iPhones and iPads, as mandated by the White House.” David Nesting, a former deputy chief information officer at the Office of Personnel Management: “It’s just making sure all federal employees are forced to see the same propaganda they push.”

Schiff found $39,000 in contracts for a banner at the Interior Department and $114,020 for the FAA, running through 2027. Records Politico obtained showed the Justice Department paid a $892,192.07 base contract for its banners and $54,768 more. Schiff: “an eight-story high Donald Trump head certainly qualifies as propaganda.”

The White House did not respond directly to questions about the contracts’ legality. Its spokesman said Schiff was willing “to trash the United States of America during its semiquincentennial celebration simply because he hates President Trump.”

Three days after banning three news organizations, the White House launched “Trump TV: The Essentials Station,” a 24-hour stream of its own past video. Its head of digital strategy, Kaelan Dorr, called it “a livestream of the Administration’s greatest hits, unfiltered.” It opened, NOTUS reported, “with a two-month-old clip of the president speaking at Mount Rushmore.”

A thirty-second spot of the president’s record and message ran during conservative shows on Fox News and Newsmax, closing with the line “paid for by the U.S. government.” AdImpact put the buy at $14,000. The White House had posted a 15-second version on its official YouTube channel on September 13. It called the ad “educational and unapologetically patriotic” and did not say what agency paid for it.

Two Republican senators objected. Thom Tillis: “using taxpayer dollars, it feels like Viktor Orban.” John Kennedy: “I don’t generally like to see politicians use public money to pay for their own campaign ads.”

CBS News reported that the ad began running on national networks, CBS among them, and that a second government-paid ad, recounting the U.S. capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and featuring Trump and his top Cabinet officials, aired on CBS stations and other networks that evening. There are 30- and 60-second versions. The government produced the content and paid for the air time through an ad agency, CBS reported.

The musician JMSN said he never licensed the song: “I would never authorize my music to be used for ANY political agenda or campaign.” A White House official told CBS the ads “are clearly not political.”

Sen. Maggie Hassan asked chief of staff Susie Wiles for the cost, the contractors, the source of the funding and whether money was diverted from federal agencies. The top Democratic appropriators, Sens. Patty Murray and Jack Reed and Reps. Rosa DeLauro and Steny Hoyer, demanded that it be pulled: “This is the sort of government propaganda one might expect in North Korea, not the United States of America, and it is an egregious and illegal misuse of Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars.”

A minute-long ad began airing on Newsmax with video of Mount Rushmore at night and clips of Trump’s Fourth of July speech there: “This is only the beginning of the golden age of America.” The White House published “Presidential Public Service Announcements Are Nothing New,” calling the criticism “highly dishonest” and citing a Bush-era Medicare campaign, Obama’s EPA and Biden’s vaccination drive. NBC News noted that the Government Accountability Office had faulted the Bush campaign for not disclosing the government as its source and the Obama one for violating “publicity or propaganda and anti-lobbying provisions.”

Public Citizen filed a complaint alleging the ads violate the laws against using government resources for propaganda and, for the staff involved, the Hatch Act. Co-president Lisa Gilbert: “Taxpayer funds cannot pay for partisan political propaganda.”

A thirty-second black-and-white spot of Trump walking down a hallway, which the Associated Press called “virtually identical to one that aired in 2024,” ran during Fox’s broadcasts of two NFL games, CNN reported. Trump in it: “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.” NBC News reported that the government version drops the campaign ending and adds “Paid for by the U.S. government.” AdImpact put spending on the ads at more than $1.7 million.

Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana, on CBS’s “Face the Nation”: “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.” Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky: “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.”

The Wall Street Journal reported, and NBC News, the Associated Press and CNBC confirmed, that the ads are paid for with Customs and Border Protection money from the 2025 reconciliation law rather than annual appropriations. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, confirmed it on the record, saying “it was taken out of funding that was supposed to be for Customs and Border Protection.” DHS referred questions to the White House. Sens. Patty Murray and Chris Murphy wrote that “it appears DHS has dedicated $20 million to this outrageous scheme” and asked for answers within 48 hours. CNBC found a $20 million CBP contract for a “National Media Campaign” awarded September 20, one day after the budget office released $20 million to CBP under a “Commemorative Events” line; the public record does not yet tie that contract to these ads.

CNN, citing one source familiar with the matter, reported that Trump personally drove the ads, including helping select the imagery and videos, and two Trump advisers told CNN they are made in-house by the White House video team. The Journal, citing people familiar, reported he pushed for them. Both accounts rest on anonymous sources.

Majority Leader John Thune: “It’s a great message. I like the message, but it shouldn’t be paid for with taxpayer dollars.” Sen. Thom Tillis: “I hate it. I tell you, it feels like Viktor Orbán talking to the Hungarian people.” White House spokesperson Davis Ingle answered the criticism by calling Trump “the unequivocal leader, best messenger, and unmatched motivator for the Republican Party.”

Public Citizen asked the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission to “direct broadcasters to stop broadcasting” the ads, arguing that because Trump is not a candidate, stations are free to refuse them.

An administration official told Axios that “The Department of Homeland Security is placing the ad buys using money from an existing budget,” and Axios reported that Trump “is personally selecting which government-funded ads his administration is airing ahead of the midterms,” with more to come. AdImpact counted 2,766 airings from September 23 to 29 on Fox News and the four broadcast networks, CNN reported, with about 30% of the spending on NFL and college football games.

On the Senate floor, Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming blocked Sen. Maggie Hassan’s resolution declaring that such ads “should not be paid for by the United States government.” “When a Democratic president tells Americans what to do, it’s a public service,” Lummis said. “When this president tells Americans that liberty is worth defending, it’s suddenly a problem.”

In the Oval Office, Trump said, “Now, if somebody said that that’s wrong, I’ll gladly pay the money, but these are ads for the country,” and, “I’m not promoting a candidate. I’m not promoting myself because I’m not running for office.” It was his first comment on the campaign.

A fourth spot carrying the government disclaimer began airing. In it Trump says, “This regime will soon learn that no one should challenge the strength and might of the United States,” and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says, “We didn’t start this war, but under President Trump, we are finishing it.” Which funds paid for it has not been confirmed.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, a Trump appointee, dismissed Public Citizen’s complaint: “There’s nothing in there that strikes me to merit any sort of FCC review.” Anna Gomez, the commission’s only Democrat, said she “highly” doubts the FCC “is going to do much to investigate it.”

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington asked the inspector general to examine possible violations of the Antideficiency Act, the Purpose Statute and the government-wide ban on “publicity or propaganda” in the 2026 appropriations law.

Reps. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, and George Whitesides asked GAO to identify the “sources, accounts and total amount” spent and to rule on legality, and the Office of Special Counsel to determine who should be held accountable. It is the first request from members of Congress to GAO, which had told Ars Technica that its “work is done at the request of congressional committees or subcommittees or is statutorily required by public laws.” The letter says “stealing taxpayer dollars to pay for Mr. Trump’s narcissistic ego trips is plainly illegal.”

Both agencies confirmed receiving it, the Daily Beast reported. GAO spokesperson Sarah Kaczmarek: “GAO has a process it goes through to determine whether we do work and when, which we are working through right now.”

CNN reported that the administration has created at least 13 campaign-style ads, including “God Made Trump,” shown at Republicans’ midterm convention, and obtained clips from a Dropbox account “run by LMD, the agency that has been given the government contract for the ad buys.” The Washington Post reported that to add $20 million to DHS’s “commemorative events” line, OMB drew on money the 2025 law gave CBP; a House budget committee report said that line was intended for “Line-of-Duty death memorials, Department or agency anniversaries, and commendation ceremonies.”

The New York Times reported, citing people familiar with the matter, that “President Donald Trump personally instructed his budget director to use taxpayer money for TV ads praising him and his presidency.”

After criticism from both parties, Trump posted, “This is a rather standard thing to do but, rather than doing that, although nothing will make them happy, I have decided to do the Patriotic Ads, among others, and pay for them myself, and with money I raised for MAGA, Inc.” A White House official told CBS News the post “was not referring to reimbursing the federal government” for ads already bought.

Asked the next day whether he would repay the money already spent, he said, “we’ll decide,” the AP reported.

In Common Cause v. Department of Homeland Security, Judge Jennifer L. Rochon of the Southern District of New York stayed CBP’s $20 million purchase order and OMB’s reallocation of the money and ordered the government to cancel remaining placements, “including those placements for the evening of October 11, 2026,” for 14 days. The Justice Department had argued an order was unnecessary because “the alleged offending conduct will end tomorrow.”

In her opinion the next day, Rochon wrote that “Defendants do not contest the merits of Plaintiffs’ claims” and found the plaintiffs likely to succeed in showing the ads “were disseminated to support Republican candidates and impact the midterm elections.” She called DHS’s statement that it had “no plans” for more buys “equivocal” and cited Trump’s October 5 post calling the spending a “standard thing to do.”

The plaintiffs told the court that, by AdImpact’s data, the ads “ran in nearly 400 spots on programs that began airing at 7 p.m. Eastern last night,” after the order took effect, including during CBS’s “60 Minutes” and ABC’s “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” and kept running the next day. The government’s status report explained that “Agency counsel did not become aware of Government counsel’s email until this morning” and said, “The undersigned apologizes to the Court and the plaintiffs.” The plaintiffs said they “do not presently seek contempt sanctions.” The judge set a conference for October 14.