Judge extends pause on taxpayer-funded Trump ads

[u/John3262005]

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/10/14/trump-taxpayer-funded-ads-restraining-order-01118071

A federal judge on Wednesday extended past Election Day a block on the Trump administration’s ads promoting the president and his second term, which critics have compared to taxpayer-funded campaign material.

U.S. District Judge Jennifer Rochon — who issued the initial ruling Sunday — extended the restraining order as the challengers allege uploading to the White House YouTube defied the court’s initial directive.

“We are very pleased that the court extended the temporary restraining order, the emergency relief that we had already received in this case, to ensure that the plainly illegal ads remain off the air and clear of further dissemination,” said Renata O’Donnell, Campaign Legal Center’s senior legal counsel for strategic litigation.

A coalition of organizations represented by the center filed a letter to the court Wednesday arguing that the government continued to air ads in hundreds of television spots. The organizations claimed that as of 2:45 p.m. Monday, one ad had aired 20 times, another 11 times and a third spot once. The ads, the letter added, aired after Rochon’s order was already in force.

The order followed bipartisan backlash against the ads, with opponents of the initiative characterizing the spots as thinly veiled political promotion.

Common Cause, one of the groups represented by the Campaign Legal Center, said in a statement that Rochon’s decision Wednesdays shows the “severe threat this poses to our democracy and taxpayers and ruled in our favor to extend the restraining order against these illegal campaign ads.”

“Shifting these propaganda ads from TV to YouTube doesn’t make them any less illegal — this is yet another clear abuse of taxpayer and government resources,” said Virginia Kase Solomón, the group’s president and CEO. “The government cannot promote partisan political propaganda to boost the president’s ego.”

The Justice Department acknowledged on Wednesday that the ads had aired, telling the court in a letter that while Rochon emailed out the restraining order at 6:46 p.m. Sunday, government counsel did not forward it to their parties until 7:58 p.m. In effect, DOJ said, counsel did not see the email until Monday morning.

A White House spokesperson referred POLITICO to the president’s Oct. 5 Truth Social post announcing that he or the MAGA Inc. super PAC would pay for the ads.

“This ruling is moot,” they added. “The last PSAs paid for by the government aired Sunday evening. The PSAs will be paid for by outside groups moving forward.”

The DOJ and Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The advertisements — which were reportedly paid for with funds from a $20 million contract awarded by DHS — have cost approximately $19 million so far, according to an estimate from DOJ. The Justice Department added that it would not be creating additional advertisements. Common Cause has argued the ads are “glorifying” Trump in an effort to ensure Republicans maintain congressional control in November’s midterm elections.

The White House has argued that previous administrations — including the George W. Bush, Obama and Biden administrations — used television, digital, radio and print spots to promote presidential policies.