The Democratic National Committee has sued the Trump administration over a series of government-funded ads that promote the president, arguing the campaign is political propaganda paid for with public money. The complaint, filed Wednesday 7 October in federal court in Washington, names the White House Office, the Office of Management and Budget and the Department of Homeland Security as defendants.
What the complaint alleges
“President Trump personally directed this illegal activity,” the filing says. It lays out a division of labour: the White House Office crafted the partisan campaign, OMB shifted $20 million to pay for it, and Customs and Border Protection, which sits under DHS, carried it out. The DNC calls these actions ultra vires and says they violate the Administrative Procedure Act.
The ads have run on a range of channels ahead of next month’s congressional election. According to the complaint, they promote Trump and his midterm messaging, and one is virtually identical to a 2024 campaign ad. The fifth in the series began airing on Tuesday, the Associated Press reported, with the notice “Paid for by the US Government”. It promotes Trump’s military actions in Venezuela earlier this year.
Backlash and a shifting promise
Public Citizen had already filed two complaints the week before. The watchdog group asked regulators and broadcasters to pull the ads and sought a federal investigation, arguing they appear to violate the federal ban on using taxpayer funds for propaganda (5 USC 3107), related appropriations provisions and the Hatch Act.
The DNC says Trump responded to “intense bipartisan backlash” on Monday by saying his super PAC, MAGA Inc., would pay for ads “moving forward”. Yet for two more days the ads kept airing under the government label. Asked on Tuesday whether he would reimburse money already spent, Trump told reporters, “We’ll decide.”
With under 30 days to the midterms and millions in public money still unspent, the complaint says the DNC “has no choice but to take action in defense of free and fair elections.” DNC Chair Ken Martin said Trump is “misusing millions of taxpayer dollars to fund pure propaganda ads in a last-ditch attempt to save Republicans in November”. He also accused the president of taking money from a fund meant for memorials to Americans killed in the line of duty.
The defendants had not commented on the suit when it was filed.
