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Trump says he will pay for taxpayer-funded ads that sparked backlash for glorifying him

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Donald Trump has said he will stop using taxpayer funds for television advertisements glorifying himself, which sparked a major backlash, and instead tap his super PAC to cover ads going forward.

In a post on his social media site, Trump defended the ads, which cost at least $1.5m in federal funds and have drawn intense criticism. Trump said they were “positive promotion for our Great U.S.A”.

“This is a rather standard thing to do,” the president wrote, while blaming intense criticism for using taxpayer funds on the ads on the “Radical Left.”

But the president added that he had “decided to do the Patriotic Ads, among others, and pay for them myself, and with money I raised for MAGA, Inc.”

Trump provided no details on reimbursing taxpayers for ads that already aired, nor how he would go about having his political organization pay for such future advertising, AP reported.

The White House – which had fiercely defended using taxpayer money on spots meant to promote the president – said on Monday night that MAGA Inc will pay for such ads going forward. It did not answer questions on how it or Trump might prove that his political funds were being used on such future advertising.

The first ad featured clips of Trump talking about defeating communism interspersed with onscreen text promoting the “largest tax cuts in history,” “reigniting American manufacturing” and a call to “defend law and order and police.”

Later the same week, a second ad began running. It showed scenic videos of Mount Rushmore with quotes and clips from Trump’s 4th July weekend speech there honoring the country’s 250th anniversary.

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Key events

Some Republicans also raised concerns, with Senate majority leader, John Thune, and the senators Mike Rounds, John Kennedy and Thom Tillis questioning the use of public money.

Meanwhile the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chair, Brendan Carr, a Trump appointee, said the ads were appropriate.

The ads are not the first administration advertising spending to draw scrutiny.

Last year the Department of Homeland Security under Kristi Noem spent more than $200m on ads promoting her and Trump’s immigration policies.

In March, Noem testified that Trump had approved the campaign (which the president denied to Reuters), and he then removed her from the secretary role, relegating her to special envoy of the “Shield of the Americas”.

The Trump administration had faced questions over whether it illegally used taxpayer money to air television ads promoting Donald Trump five weeks before the US midterm elections.

Two congressional Democrats, Jamie Raskin of Maryland and George Whitesides of California, asked federal watchdogs to investigate the ads.

Raskin, the top Democrat on the judiciary committee of the House of Representatives, and Whitesides wrote to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the office of special counsel (OSC), describing the commercials as “desperate pre-election propaganda”.

The first ad was initially broadcast on 23 September. It shows dozens of images of Trump as a singer repeats “love me”, and the UFC president, Dana White, praises the president. A second ad, which aired days later, pairs footage of Trump with audio from a rally criticizing the “deep state”. Both end with fine print saying they were paid for by the US government.

“President Trump is obviously desperate for the American people to ‘love’ him, a problem that goes beyond your jurisdiction,” Raskin and Whitesides wrote in their letter. “But stealing taxpayer dollars to pay for Mr Trump’s narcissistic ego trips is plainly illegal.”

The lawmakers asked the GAO to identify the source and total amount of money used, and to issue a legal decision on whether the ads broke the law. They asked the OSC to investigate and determine who should be held accountable.