President Trump personally instructed his budget director to use taxpayer money for TV ads praising him and his presidency, setting in motion a $20 million contract that used funds from the Department of Homeland Security, according to people familiar with the matter.
The ads have run across cable and network television — on Fox News, CNN and MS Now, with football games on Fox and with national newscasts on CBS, ABC and NBC, including “Meet the Press,” which Mr. Trump is known to watch.
Mr. Trump was eager to see the laudatory ads on the air and told Russell T. Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, to come up with the money from within the government, the people said. Mark Paoletta, the budget office’s counsel, and Will Scharf, the White House counsel, both said it would be legal to use D.H.S. funds. The president and Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, both spoke with Markwayne Mullin, the homeland security secretary, about the ads.
On Sept. 20, U.S. Customs and Border Protection — which falls under D.H.S. — awarded the contract to LMD, a Maryland marketing firm, federal records show.
This article is based on interviews with 12 people familiar with the president’s interest in the ads and how they came to be. They spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the president’s demand.
The taxpayer-funded ads have been criticized by Democrats and even some Republicans as a possible violation of federal laws against using taxpayer dollars for “publicity or propaganda purposes.” And they come as the president is also directing spending from his super PAC — MAGA Inc., which entered the fall with $400 million — for which he has been raising money since he won re-election in 2024.
It was not clear why taxpayer funds, and not money from the super PAC, were used for the spots.
The White House has called the ads public service announcements and said they are appropriate because there is no “call to action” to vote for any candidate. Some of his aides also noted that Mr. Trump is not running for office now, in an attempt to blunt criticism of the ads as violating federal laws about the use of public money.
When pressed by a reporter on Wednesday, Mr. Trump said: “If somebody said that that’s wrong, I’ll gladly pay the money.”
“But these are ads for the country,” he added. “You have to understand. I’m not promoting a candidate. I’m not promoting myself because I’m not running for office. I’m promoting the country.”
At least four spots have run so far, at a cost of about $5.5 million, and that is expected to grow, according to the media tracker AdImpact and people familiar with the spending. One played images of Mr. Trump to the song “Love Me” by Christian Berishaj, who performs as JMSN. (The artist has protested the use of his song.)
Another was identical to a Trump campaign video from 2024 that condemns “villains” whom the president perceives as enemies. The use of material originally made during Mr. Trump’s political campaign has given fuel to critics who reject the White House claim that the ads are simply public service announcements.
A third ad, about the Iran war, features remarks from both Mr. Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Such public service spots typically say which agency paid for them. In this case, all of the ads had an unusual tagline: “Paid for by the U.S. government.”
‘Love Me’
On Aug. 7, Mr. Trump was in the Oval Office with a group of Republican strategists working with his team, along with James Blair, his top political adviser, and Ms. Wiles. Natalie Harp, his ever-present assistant and provider of positive news about himself, was there as well.
At the time, Mr. Trump’s advisers were waiting for him to sign off, finally, on spending from his super PAC for midterm candidates, after months of anxiety from Republican candidates about whether he would help them financially in tight races.
But during that meeting, the president was much more interested in looking at videos of himself.
He turned to Ms. Harp and asked her to show the group the type of imagery he favors.
Ms. Harp pulled up a series of videos made by the White House digital team on her tablet: Mr. Trump standing in front of vast crowds; Mr. Trump beside Marine One; Mr. Trump with fighter jets streaking overhead.
One video showed Dana White, the U.F.C. president, at the 2024 Republican convention, calling Mr. Trump “the toughest, most resilient person that I’ve ever met.” Mr. Trump has talked with delight about that quote repeatedly ever since.
Mr. Trump made clear he planned to travel to support candidates in the midterms, but also that his presidency needed to be promoted, front and center, in the commercials his advisers were making.
Later that month, The Atlantic reported that MAGA Inc. was planning a blitz of midterm ads, with Trump as the centerpiece.
Instead, a Trump-linked nonprofit called Securing American Greatness aired a spot featuring the Dana White quote, spending just under $60,000, according to AdImpact. The ad primarily aired over Sept. 2 and Sept. 3 around Washington, where Mr. Trump was sure to see them.
But then, weeks later, several ads glorifying Mr. Trump began appearing across the country — this time paid for by taxpayers, by way of Customs and Border Protection.
The ads included the “Love Me” spot, in which Mr. Trump says in a voice-over that “America will never be a communist country.”
As the taxpayer-funded spots began running, MAGA Inc. has spent directly to help out in one specific race, putting more than $20 million into the Texas Senate campaign. Two other new groups linked to MAGA Inc. — No Going Back PAC and Safety and Affordability PAC — were recently created and have spent and reserved more than $163 million on spots in races across the country.
But those ads feature Mr. Trump only sparingly.
Asked to comment for this story, the White House press office sent an unsigned statement saying, “These public service announcements are about reminding Americans to love their country and understand what makes it worth defending, at home, at our borders and abroad.”
The White House has said there is precedent for using taxpayer money for the ads. “Don’t let the Fake News get away with their lies about our epic Public Service Announcements that have been running on tv,” Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, posted on X on Sept. 27.
His office sent out an email stating that “presidential public service announcements are nothing new,” comparing the spots to efforts to promote health care policy in past administrations, or President Woodrow Wilson’s World War I propaganda campaign.
The Government Accountability Office has found likely or confirmed violations of the anti-propaganda rule before, including during the tenures of both President Barack Obama and President George W. Bush. Those cases concerned publicity campaigns related to policies, not ads focused on the presidents themselves.
‘This Is My Money’
The money for the ads was freed up on Sept. 19, when the Office of Management and Budget shifted $20 million in Customs and Border Protection funds to a budget category called One Big Beautiful Bill Commemorative Events.
The next day, C.B.P. awarded a $20 million contract to LMD, a marketing firm based in Columbia, Md., that federal records show had past work as a government contractor. The actual purchase of the airtime was made by a second firm, LMO, according to a person familiar with the events, who wasn’t authorized to discuss them publicly.
A spokeswoman for the Office of Management and Budget declined to comment on the reporting for this story. A spokesperson for the Homeland Security Department would only say, “D.H.S. follows all applicable rules for contracting decisions and keeps all decision makers informed. All contracting decisions are made in accordance with applicable law.” Officials with LMD and LMO did not respond to requests for comment.
The spots started out airing narrowly but soon ran in heavy rotation not just on cable channels, but on broadcast networks as well. They ran heavily on the network morning programs like “Good Morning America” and “CBS Mornings,” according AdImpact, and appeared in entertainment shows including “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and “The Amazing Race.” One aired repeatedly during weekend football broadcasts on the Fox network.
The ads are not the first costly television campaign under Mr. Trump, nor are they the first controversial one. In 2025, Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary at the time, appeared in a $200 million-plus government ad campaign. The ads, which showed Ms. Noem on a horse at Mount Rushmore, ultimately drew the president’s disapproval, and became the justification for replacing Ms. Noem.
The latest ads promoting Mr. Trump come as his standing with the public has dropped. His approval rating sits at around 37 percent, a number that has been low and steady for months, according to a polling tracker by The New York Times. Republicans are increasingly fearful of a Democratic sweep of both House and Senate, and losses in state legislatures.
Mr. Trump has remained a prodigious fund-raiser for his various construction projects around Washington and at the White House, as well as his future presidential library. Last month, he promised to spend “probably” $400 million to $500 million on midterm election races, but he made clear who holds the purse strings to his super PAC.
“This is my money that I control,” Mr. Trump said.
Reporting was contributed by Jim Rutenberg in New York and Luke Broadwater in Washington.
