Block the Use of Federal Funds for Trump Propaganda

The Trump administration is using public funds meant for U.S. Customs and Border Protection to pay for pro-Trump propaganda ahead of the midterm elections. The Department of Homeland Security has tapped $20 million from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act for campaign-style television ads that glorify Trump, and has already spent more than $2.5 million airing them.

House Democrats say OMB Director Russ Vought moved the funds to the “public service” campaign on September 19, with ads running during college football and NFL broadcasts. Unlike other administrations’ public service announcements, experts say these are not designed to help Americans access any specific program, but rather they echo the GOP’s midterm slogans over imagery of Trump’s time in office. Since the 1950s, annual spending bills have banned using federal funds for “publicity or propaganda” and the Government Accountability Office has held that this covers “self-aggrandizing” and “purely partisan” communications.

Republicans have also voiced their opposition, with Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) coming out to say that they shouldn’t be paid for with taxpayer dollars, and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) comparing the ads to those used by Hungary’s former authoritarian leader Viktor Orbán.

Congress holds the power of the purse, and it has both the authority and the responsibility to stop this blatant misuse of funds. Call your representatives and demand that they enforce the law and block the use of taxpayer money for political propaganda.