US politics live with Shrai PopatDonald Trump Trump says he will stop using taxpayer funds for self-promoting ads after backlash – US politics live President claims commercials were ‘positive promotion for our Great USA’ but says he will now cover their cost Sign up for Breaking News US email LIVE Updated 9m ago Tom Ambrose Tue 6 Oct 2026 12.01 BSTFirst published on Tue 6 Oct 2026 11.20 BST Share Key events 50m ago Trump says he will pay for taxpayer-funded ads that sparked backlash for glorifying him A screenshot from a White House ad for Donald Trump.
Donald Trump has said he will stop using taxpayer funds for television advertisements glorifying himself, which sparked a major backlash, and instead tap his super PAC to cover ads going forward.
In a post on his social media site, Trump defended the ads, which cost at least $1.5m in federal funds and have drawn intense criticism.
Trump said they were “positive promotion for our Great U.S.A”.
“This is a rather standard thing to do,” the president wrote, while blaming intense criticism for using taxpayer funds on the ads on the “Radical Left.” But the president added that he had “decided to do the Patriotic Ads, among others, and pay for them myself, and with money I raised for MAGA, Inc.” Trump provided no details on reimbursing taxpayers for ads that already aired, nor how he would go about having his political organization pay for such future advertising, AP reported.
The White House - which had fiercely defended using taxpayer money on spots meant to promote the president - said on Monday night that MAGA Inc will pay for such ads going forward.
It did not answer questions on how it or Trump might prove that his political funds were being used on such future advertising.
The first ad featured clips of Trump talking about defeating communism interspersed with onscreen text promoting the “largest tax cuts in history,” “reigniting American manufacturing” and a call to “defend law and order and police.” Later the same week, a second ad began running.
It showed scenic videos of Mount Rushmore with quotes and clips from Trump’s 4th July weekend speech there honoring the country’s 250th anniversary.
In other developments: Donald Trump said he was “doing great” as his approval rating sank to a record low 32%.
The president made the remarks as he headed to Nebraska, to campaign for a Republican senator there.
Pennsylvania is reporting the largest measles outbreak in the nation, with more than 1,000 cases this year.
The governor of neighboring New York, Kathy Hochul, has declared a disaster emergency over an ongoing measles outbreak there.
Politico was barred from traveling on Air Force One for Trump’s trip to Nebraska, according to a report by CNN.
This comes after the administration previously stopped CNN from similarly traveling with the president, despite a federal judge putting a temporary block on Trump’s overall ban on Politico, CNN and MS Now from the White House.
Karoline Leavitt, who stepped down as White House press secretary in August, is joining Fox News as an on-air contributor, according to an announcement from the network.
Leavitt, 29, the youngest press secretary in White House history, left the administration after the birth of her second child earlier this year.
The supreme court heard the first arguments of its 2026-27 term, in a case that focuses on whether states can sue oil companies for the impact of climate change on their communities.
The lawsuit was filed by local officials in Boulder, Colorado, against Suncor Energy and ExxonMobil.
Secretary of state Marco Rubio said there was no direct link between the sudden removal of US bombers from a UK airbase and a suspected Iranian plot at the site last week.
“I wouldn’t just directly tie that to the move that was made,” Rubio told reporters, when asked about the B1 bombers.
“The Department of War is constantly reallocating resources where they need to be,“ Rubio added, noting that the US has confidence in the security of all its bases.
Key events 50m ago Trump says he will pay for taxpayer-funded ads that sparked backlash for glorifying him Some Republicans also raised concerns, with Senate majority leader, John Thune, and the senators Mike Rounds, John Kennedy and Thom Tillis questioning the use of public money.
Meanwhile the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chair, Brendan Carr, a Trump appointee, said the ads were appropriate.
The ads are not the first administration advertising spending to draw scrutiny.
Last year the Department of Homeland Security under Kristi Noem spent more than $200m on ads promoting her and Trump’s immigration policies.
In March, Noem testified that Trump had approved the campaign (which the president denied to Reuters), and he then removed her from the secretary role, relegating her to special envoy of the “Shield of the Americas”.
The Trump administration had faced questions over whether it illegally used taxpayer money to air television ads promoting Donald Trump five weeks before the US midterm elections.
Two congressional Democrats, Jamie Raskin of Maryland and George Whitesides of California, asked federal watchdogs to investigate the ads.
Raskin, the top Democrat on the judiciary committee of the House of Representatives, and Whitesides wrote to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the office of special counsel (OSC), describing the commercials as “desperate pre-election propaganda”.
The first ad was initially broadcast on 23 September.
It shows dozens of images of Trump as a singer repeats “love me”, and the UFC president, Dana White, praises the president.
A second ad, which aired days later, pairs footage of Trump with audio from a rally criticizing the “deep state”.
Both end with fine print saying they were paid for by the US government.
“President Trump is obviously desperate for the American people to ‘love’ him, a problem that goes beyond your jurisdiction,” Raskin and Whitesides wrote in their letter.
“But stealing taxpayer dollars to pay for Mr Trump’s narcissistic ego trips is plainly illegal.” The lawmakers asked the GAO to identify the source and total amount of money used, and to issue a legal decision on whether the ads broke the law.
They asked the OSC to investigate and determine who should be held accountable.
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