GOP senator blocks resolution that criticized Trump’s taxpayer-funded ads

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

A GOP senator blocked a resolution on Tuesday that criticized the Trump administration’s recent taxpayer-funded ads promoting President Donald Trump.

Republican Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming objected to the Democrat-led measure, which stated that taxpayer funds should not have been used for the controversial ads.

The measure, from Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, slammed the administration for using government funds for the White House’s recent advertisements. “It is the sense of the Senate that the advertisements promoting President Donald Trump that aired in September 2026, which included the direct language ‘paid for by the U.S. Government,’ should not be paid for by the United States government,” it read.

Senators on both sides of the aisle have criticized the president for using taxpayer dollars for the ads. Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters on Monday, “It’s a great message. I like the message, but it shouldn’t be paid for with taxpayer dollars,” and retiring GOP Sen. John Cornyn of Texas added, “no” it’s not appropriate. “It’s not even a close question,” he said.

On the Senate floor on Tuesday, as she introduced her resolution, Hassan said, “The American people want their tax dollars to go towards helping them and keeping them safe, not propaganda campaigns for a president. He’s welcome to run whatever ads he wants with his own riches, but with taxpayer dollars, money that people have worked hard to earn, he needs to follow the law.”

Lummis echoed the White House’s own argument that the ads are comparable to public service announcements released during previous administrations, and are not campaign ads.

“Presidents of both parties have used public service announcements to speak directly to the American people for decades,” the Wyoming Republican said. “The message at the heart of these PSAs is a simple one: American values are worth defending against the failed ideologies of communism and socialism. If that is what has the senator from New Hampshire concerned, I’d suggest the concern says more about her side of the aisle than it does about the PSA.”

One recently released taxpayer-funded television ad features imagery of Trump walking down a hall as audio plays of him saying “this is the final battle.”

“We will cast out the communists, Marxists, and fascists. We will throw off the sick political class that hates our country. We will rout the fake news media, and we will liberate America from these villains once and for all,” Trump says in the ad .

Hassan attempted to pass the resolution criticizing the use of taxpayer funding for the ads via a fast-track process known as a unanimous consent request. Any single senator can object to such a request.

安娜·莫尼梅克/盖蒂图片社

周二，一名共和党参议员阻止了一项决议的通过，该决议批评特朗普政府最近动用纳税人的钱投放广告宣传唐纳德·特朗普总统。

怀俄明州共和党参议员辛西娅·卢米斯反对民主党主导的这项法案，该法案指出，不应该使用纳税人的钱来投放这些有争议的广告。

这项由新罕布什尔州民主党参议员玛吉·哈桑提出的法案，抨击政府动用公款用于白宫近期的广告宣传。法案指出：“参议院认为，2026年9月播出的、宣传唐纳德·特朗普总统的广告，其中包含‘由美国政府支付’的明确字样，不应由美国政府支付。”

两党参议员都批评总统动用纳税人的钱投放广告。参议院多数党领袖约翰·图恩周一告诉记者：“这是一个很好的信息。我喜欢这个信息，但这不应该用纳税人的钱来支付。”即将卸任的德克萨斯州共和党参议员约翰·科宁补充说：“不，这不合适。这根本就不是一个值得商榷的问题。”

周二，哈桑在参议院提出她的决议时说：“美国人民希望他们的税款用于帮助他们、保障他们的安全，而不是用于总统的宣传活动。他可以用自己的财富随意投放广告，但用纳税人的钱，用人们辛勤劳动挣来的钱，他必须遵守法律。”

卢米斯呼应了白宫自己的论点，即这些广告与前几届政府发布的公益广告类似，并非竞选广告。

“几十年来，两党总统都曾利用公益广告直接向美国民众传达信息，”这位来自怀俄明州的共和党人说道。“这些公益广告的核心信息很简单：美国的价值观值得捍卫，免受共产主义和社会主义等失败意识形态的侵蚀。如果这就是新罕布什尔州参议员所担忧的，我认为，这种担忧更多地反映了她所在党派的立场，而不是公益广告本身。”

最近发布的一则由纳税人资助的电视广告中，画面显示特朗普走在一条走廊上，同时播放着他的音频，他说“这是最后的战斗”。

“我们将驱逐共产主义者、马克思主义者和法西斯分子。我们将赶走仇恨我们国家的病态政治阶层。我们将铲除假新闻媒体，我们将一劳永逸地把美国从这些恶棍手中解放出来，”特朗普在广告中说道。

哈桑试图通过一种名为“一致同意请求”的快速通道程序，推动一项批评使用纳税人资金投放广告的决议获得通过。任何一位参议员都可以对这样的请求提出异议。