Judge Orders Halt to Trump's $20M Taxpayer-Funded Campaign Ads (First Report)
A federal judge in Manhattan issued a temporary restraining order Sunday evening, Oct. 11, directing the Trump administration to immediately stop airing campaign-style advertisements paid for with taxpayer money and to cancel all remaining airings, effective 6:45 p.m. ET.
According to CNN, U.S. District Judge Jennifer Rochon granted the order sought by a coalition led by the nonpartisan watchdog group Common Cause, which had challenged the ad buys in New York federal court. The Justice Department told the court late Saturday that the ad push was set to end Sunday night, making the order unnecessary; Rochon ruled that the timing did not render the lawsuit moot and ordered the government to halt any further airings.
The administration allocated $20 million for the ads, drawn from U.S. Customs and Border Protection via the Department of Homeland Security and classified as public service announcements. In a sworn declaration, senior DHS official Holly Mehringer said the advertising firm LMD Agency Inc. purchased media buys through Sunday, Oct. 11, at an approximate cost of $19 million - meaning about $19 million in taxpayer money had already been spent. Mehringer added that DHS had directed LMD not to make any additional media buys past Oct. 11 and that there were no plans for more.
The ads began airing in late September. At least 13 campaign-style spots ran on CBS, CNN, MS NOW, Fox News, Fox and streaming platforms, featuring Trump promoting his policies and warning against communism and a final battle with globalists, each ending with a 'Paid for by the U.S. Government' disclaimer. CNN previously reported that Trump personally helped select some of the ads' imagery.
The campaign drew bipartisan concern from lawmakers. Legal experts say using congressionally appropriated funds for political publicity violates federal law. On Oct. 5, Trump said he had decided to pay for the patriotic ads himself, with his own money and funds raised for MAGA, Inc.; six days later, the taxpayer-funded ads were still airing.
Rochon's order lasts 14 days and bars the defendants from entering into, renewing or expanding any agreement for the production, dissemination or airing of the challenged ads during that period. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A final ruling on the ads' legality is still pending.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 纽约曼哈顿 Daniel Patrick Moynihan 联邦法院大楼实景，CC BY 4.0（Wikimedia Commons，摄影：83136374@N05）
