The Democratic National Committee sued President Donald Trump’s administration Wednesday in Washington over television advertisements promoting the president’s political message at taxpayer expense, filing the complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
The complaint alleges the spots are illegal government-sponsored propaganda, accuses Trump of personally directing them, and asks the court to declare them unlawful and bar further use of federal funds to pay for them.
The ads began airing in September and have drawn bipartisan criticism as voters cast early ballots ahead of midterm elections less than a month away. According to media tracking firm AdImpact they have already cost more than $12 million to run, with a total of $20 million in Homeland Security Department funding tapped to pay for them from a $175 million package Congress provided to the department for Trump’s immigration enforcement agenda.
Trump defended the spots Monday as “positive promotion for our Great U.S.A.,” as described in his response, and said his MAGA Inc. super PAC would pay for them going forward. On Tuesday the fifth ad in the campaign began airing with a notice it was “paid for by the U.S. Government” and promoted Trump’s military actions in Venezuela earlier this year; the same day Trump told reporters he had not committed to reimbursing money already spent and would decide.
DNC Chair Ken Martin said in a statement that Trump was misusing taxpayer dollars in “a last-ditch attempt to save Republicans in November” and added that “Americans deserve better than to have their hard-earned tax dollars used for Trump’s illegal schemes.” Legal experts have suggested the ads run afoul of a federal statute barring use of congressionally appropriated money for “publicity or propaganda,” while the White House has defended them as public service announcements similar to past administrations, a characterization legal experts disputed because the spots are not aimed at helping the public benefit from specific government programs. The defendants — Trump, the White House, DHS and the Office of Management and Budget — did not immediately respond to requests for comment.