US judge orders halt to taxpayer-funded ads featuring Trump

WASHINGTON – A US judge on Oct 11 blocked the Trump administration from using taxpayer money to pay for political advertisements, after publicly funded television ads glorifying United States President Donald Trump began airing in late September and sparked a bipartisan backlash.

Manhattan-based US District Judge Jennifer Rochon temporarily barred the advertisements after plaintiffs including watchdog group Common Cause brought a lawsuit alleging the ads were political propaganda designed to help Republican candidates in the Nov 3 midterm elections, not public service announcements.

The Trump administration was already planning to stop running the ads before Rochon’s order, according to a separate statement filed with the court on Oct 10.

The decision caps days of controversy over the taxpayer-funded advertisements, which were aired in the final weeks before the midterm elections.

“We won’t stop until this administration is held fully accountable, and no president from any party can waste and abuse taxpayer funds for propaganda ever again,” said Common Cause president and CEO Virginia Kase Solomon.

Trump on Oct 12 said he considered the ads to be a “positive promotion for our great USA” but they would no longer be funded by taxpayers.

The White House also said this week that the President’s political action committee, MAGA PAC, would fund the ads going forward.

It said Trump’s political action committee will not reimburse taxpayers for the ads that have already run. The ads end with a disclaimer saying they were paid for by the US government. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the judge’s order.

The plaintiffs, who included a public employee union and a candidate for Alabama state representative, had asked Rochon to temporarily block the ads by Oct 16 so that they could not air during weekend programming like football games and sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live (1975 to present).

Democratic Party officials also challenged the ads in a separate suit brought in federal court in Washington. REUTERS