The Trump administration appears to have used $20 million in Department of Homeland Security funds to pay for a series of television advertisements featuring and boosting President Donald Trump ahead of the midterm elections, congressional Democrats said Tuesday.
The campaign-style ads, which have aired on broadcast and cable networks, have drawn bipartisan criticism as a blatantly partisan — and potentially illegal — misuse of taxpayer dollars. The first of the ads, in which Trump lambasted communism and socialism, began airing last week.
The ad and other subsequent spots, including one that mirrors a Trump 2024 campaign video, had a disclaimer reading “paid for by the U.S. government.”
In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin on Tuesday, Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said it appeared that DHS had dedicated $20 million in funds provided to U.S. Customs and Border Protection under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the president’s sweeping tax-and-spending law signed last year, to the ad campaign.
“We should not have to remind you that using government funding to create or air political ads like the ones that have been running over the last few days is illegal and a shockingly corrupt misuse of taxpayer dollars,” wrote Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Murphy, the ranking member on the subcommittee for DHS funding.
They called for the ads to be pulled off the air and requested DHS answer questions on the department’s role in the campaign.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, also told reporters that the ad spend was not under the jurisdiction of her committee but “was taken out of funding that was supposed to be for Customs and Border Protection.”
AdImpact, a service that tracks advertisements, has modeled that as much as over $2 million has been spent airing the ads so far, although that number is not precise because the spend data is not public.
The ads have aired across several high-profile shows, from college and NFL football games to Sunday morning news programs.
The funding source for the ad campaign, which was first reported by The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, also drew criticism from House Democrats.
“When Democrats reclaim control of Congress next year, the House Appropriations Committee will work to uncover and reverse misuses of taxpayer money like this and hold those who abused their power accountable,” Reps. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) and Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), the ranking members of the House Appropriations Committee and the homeland security appropriations subcommittee, respectively, said in a statement.
The representatives said Russ Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, sent a new tranche of CBP funding days before the ads began airing. According to government data, OMB increased the money apportioned for CBP to hold “commemorative efforts and events” by $20 million on Sept. 19, which the lawmakers said they suspect was used for the ad campaign.
The Department of Homeland Security referred a request for comment to a White House statement defending the ads as public service announcements.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday but has previously defended the ads as "very clearly not campaign ads."
Katherine Tully-McManus contributed to this report.
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