Trump says he will pay for campaign-style ads himself after backlash over taxpayer-funded effort

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President Donald Trump said Monday he will no longer use taxpayer money to fund a series of promotional television ads , announcing that he will instead pay for them with funds raised for MAGA, Inc., the pro-Trump super PAC.

“The Radical Left is upset with the fact that I am taking Ads, which I consider to be a positive promotion for our Great U.S.A., and paying for them with U.S.A. money. This is a rather standard thing to do but, rather than doing that, although nothing will make them happy, I have decided to do the Patriotic Ads, among others, and pay for them myself, and with money I raised for MAGA, Inc. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social .

The reversal follows criticism of the administration’s multimillion-dollar television advertising effort, which Republicans and Democrats alike have questioned. The White House has defended the spots as public service announcements.

As of Monday, at least an estimated $10.1 million in taxpayer dollars have been spent on the ads, according to a leading political ad-tracking firm, AdImpact. It is unclear if the administration plans to continue spending the $20 million total that was originally allocated for the effort. Asked about its plans, a White House spokesperson did not respond to the question and only confirmed that Trump is not going to reimburse the government for the money already spent on the ad buys.

As of last week, the administration had created at least 13 campaign-style ads promoting Trump and his policies. Spots that have yet to air include three ads highlighting the US military and operations in Iran and Venezuela, one titled “God Made Trump” and another recapping the UFC fight Trump hosted at the White House.

CNN obtained clips of 12 of the ads , ranging from 15 seconds to three minutes long, two of which have already aired. They appeared in a Dropbox account shared with CNN and run by LMD, the agency awarded the government contract for the ad buys. Each ad ends with the words “Paid for by the U.S. Government” at the bottom of the screen. Another ad, “Final Battle,” which is not in the Dropbox account, has also aired in recent weeks.

While each of the ads has a different theme, many of them include imagery of the president and audio with positive reviews from news reports. They also include patriotic images — including the cap toss at a military graduation, fireworks over Mount Rushmore and military flyovers.

Trump has personally driven the video ads, CNN previously reported , including helping select the imagery and footage, according to a source familiar with the matter. Two Trump advisers said the ads were being produced in-house by the White House video team, part of the communications office responsible for the administration’s public messaging, though at least one was produced by a pro-Trump meme group.

Watchdog groups have said the ads mark a clear violation of appropriations law restricting the use of federal funding for propaganda or partisan communications, but it’s not clear if outside groups have standing to file a lawsuit. Though the ads have received bipartisan criticism, Congress — which groups said had the clearest lane to provide some accountability — did not act to block the ads ahead of the midterms.

This story has been updated with additional reporting.

CNN’s Betsy Klein contributed to this report.

安娜·莫尼梅克/盖蒂图片社

唐纳德·特朗普总统周一表示，他将不再使用纳税人的钱来资助一系列电视宣传广告，而是用为支持特朗普的超级政治行动委员会 MAGA, Inc. 筹集的资金来支付这些广告的费用。

“激进左派对我投放广告感到不满，我认为这些广告是对我们伟大的美国的正面宣传，而且这些广告的费用是用美国人民的钱支付的。这本来是件很正常的事情，但我决定不这么做，尽管我知道这不会让他们高兴，但我还是决定自己支付这些爱国广告的费用，这些费用都来自我为‘让美国再次伟大’（MAGA）筹集的资金！”特朗普在Truth Social网站上发帖写道。

此前，政府斥资数百万美元投放电视广告引发争议，共和党人和民主党人都对此提出质疑。白宫则辩称这些广告是公益宣传片。

据领先的政治广告追踪公司AdImpact估计，截至周一，至少已有1010万美元的纳税人资金被用于这些广告。目前尚不清楚政府是否计划继续使用最初为此拨款的2000万美元。当被问及相关计划时，白宫发言人没有正面回答，仅确认特朗普不会偿还政府已用于购买广告的资金。

截至上周，特朗普政府至少制作了13则竞选风格的广告，宣传特朗普及其政策。尚未播出的广告包括三则重点介绍美军在伊朗和委内瑞拉的军事行动的广告，一则题为“上帝造就了特朗普”的广告，以及另一则回顾特朗普在白宫举办的UFC格斗比赛的广告。

CNN获得了12段广告片段，时长从15秒到3分钟不等，其中两段已经播出。这些片段出现在CNN共享的Dropbox账户中，该账户由LMD运营，LMD是获得政府广告投放合同的广告公司。每段广告的结尾屏幕底部都会显示“由美国政府付费”的字样。另一段名为“最终决战”的广告也在最近几周播出，但该广告并未出现在Dropbox账户中。

虽然每则广告的主题各不相同，但许多广告都包含总统的形象和新闻报道中的正面评价音频。它们还包含一些爱国主义画面，例如军事毕业典礼上的抛帽仪式、拉什莫尔山上的烟火表演和军机飞行表演。

据CNN此前报道，特朗普亲自主导了这些视频广告的制作，一位知情人士透露，他还参与了图片和视频素材的选择。两位特朗普顾问表示，这些广告是由白宫视频团队内部制作的，该团队隶属于负责政府公共信息的通讯办公室，但至少有一条广告是由一个支持特朗普的表情包制作小组制作的。

监督机构表示，这些广告明显违反了拨款法，该法限制将联邦资金用于宣传或党派宣传，但目前尚不清楚外部团体是否有资格提起诉讼。尽管这些广告受到了两党的批评，但国会——各团体认为国会是最有能力追究责任的机构——并未在期中选举前采取行动阻止这些广告的播出。

本文已更新，添加了更多报道内容。

CNN的贝齐·克莱因对本报道亦有贡献。