--- title: "Trump Moves His Taxpayer-Funded Ads to His Super PAC, Which Is Sort of the Point" description: "After roughly $10 million in public money, MAGA Inc. takes over the “Patriotic Ads.” The $90 and $500 government checks are still going out" author: "Nate Ledger" published: 2026-10-05T23:22:50.382Z modified: 2026-10-06T01:18:03Z url: https://rews.cc/a/trump-s-midterm-plan-involves-sending-people-money-and-hopin-6a951e language: en tags: ["trump", "politics", "elections", "economy", "advertising", "us"] publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)" --- # Trump Moves His Taxpayer-Funded Ads to His Super PAC, Which Is Sort of the Point *After roughly $10 million in public money, MAGA Inc. takes over the “Patriotic Ads.” The $90 and $500 government checks are still going out* By Nate Ledger · October 5, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/trump-s-midterm-plan-involves-sending-people-money-and-hopin-6a951e ## In brief - Trump said on Truth Social that he and MAGA Inc. will pay for the “Patriotic Ads” the government had been funding - The NYT reported OMB moved $20 million in CBP funds on Sept. 19 to pay for the ads; AdImpact estimates about $9.7M–$10.1M spent - It is unclear whether MAGA Inc., with $415.8 million in cash at the end of August, will repay the money already spent - Sen. John Cornyn, Sen. Maggie Hassan and Public Citizen criticized the ads; Congress did not act to block them - The administration is also sending $500 checks to about 1 million ACA enrollees and $90 to about 20 million Medicare enrollees On Monday evening Donald Trump announced that a set of television ads praising Donald Trump, which the US government had been paying for, would from now on be paid for by Donald Trump, “and with money I raised for MAGA, Inc.,” the super PAC that supports him. The \[Truth Social post\](\) is worth reading in full, because every clause is doing something: > 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! I like “a rather standard thing to do.” The White House has said all along that these are public service announcements. A spokesperson told CNBC in late September that they remind “Americans to love their country and understand what makes it worth defending, at home, at our borders, and abroad,” adding: “The ad is educational and unapologetically patriotic.” If that is true, the government paying for them is fine and nothing needed fixing. If the critics are right that they are campaign ads, then a political committee should pay. Trump’s fix is to take the same ads and move them from the government’s wallet to the super PAC’s wallet. That is a sensible move if you think the ads work equally well coming out of either wallet. Which was more or less the critics’ complaint. Here is how the money moved in the first place. The New York Times reported last week that “Trump personally instructed his budget director to use taxpayer money for TV ads praising him and his presidency,” and that the cash became available on Sept. 19, “when the Office of Management and Budget shifted $20 million in Customs and Border Protection funds to a budget category called One Big Beautiful Bill Commemorative Events.” So border money became commemorative-events money, which became ad money. The ad-tracking firm AdImpact puts taxpayer spending on the ads at an estimated $10.1 million or more as of Monday, according to CNN. \[CNBC, also citing AdImpact\](\), gives about $9.7 million spent airing three ads featuring Trump through Oct. 5. The two figures may be measuring slightly different things, but either way it is roughly half the $20 million. What did that buy? According to CNN, the administration had made at least 13 campaign-style ads as of last week. CNN obtained 12 of them from a Dropbox account run by LMD, the agency that won the government contract for the ad buys. They run from 15 seconds to three minutes, and each one ends with “Paid for by the U.S. Government.” Two of those 12 had aired, along with another called “Final Battle” that was not in the folder. Ads that have not yet aired include one titled “God Made Trump,” a recap of the UFC fight Trump hosted at the White House, and three about the US military and operations in Iran and Venezuela. One spot that did air shows Trump saying “America will never be a communist country.” Some of them have run [during NFL broadcasts](https://rews.cc/a/trump-airs-taxpayer-funded-strongman-video-on-nfl-broadcasts-41925f). CNN previously reported that Trump personally drove the project, including helping choose the footage. Two advisers said the White House video team made the ads in-house, though at least one came from a pro-Trump meme group. MAGA Inc. reported $415.8 million in cash on hand at the end of August, according to its latest FEC filing. The whole $20 million set aside is less than 5% of that, and the roughly $10 million already spent is about 2.4%. So the super PAC could easily have paid from the start, which makes you wonder why it didn’t. CNBC asked the White House whether MAGA Inc. will repay the money already spent or only cover the ads from here on. \[MS NOW reported\](\) that it is also unclear when the switch actually happens. The backlash came from both parties. Outgoing Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said it is “not even a close question” that the ads are inappropriate. Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan wrote to chief of staff Susie Wiles that the ad “does not have a clear official government purpose” and seems to violate the ban on spending appropriated funds on “a general propaganda effort designed to aid a political party or candidates.” Public Citizen asked the GAO and the Office of Special Counsel to look at the propaganda rules and the Hatch Act, then asked the FCC, the FTC and broadcasters to pull the ads. But watchdogs may not have standing to sue, according to CNN, and Congress, which had the clearest power to act, didn’t. In practice, then, the only thing that could stop the ads was the president deciding to stop. Sure. ## The other checks The ads are one piece of a larger effort, which CNN’s Aaron Blake laid out. At the Republican midterm convention, Trump promised every adult US citizen $5,000 if Republicans hold both the House and the Senate. Last week the administration sent $500 checks to nearly 1 million Obamacare recipients. They came with a letter from Trump saying the Biden administration “overcharged you,” which experts dispute. On Friday came $90 for about 20 million seniors toward their Medicare Part B premiums. The \[White House fact sheet\](\) calls it a one-time payment to more than 20 million enrollees, paid from the Medicare Improvement Fund. The Congressional Budget Office says that $2.2 billion fund is supposed to be used “to make improvements to Medicare’s hospital and medical insurance programs.” At $90 times 20 million, that’s about $1.8 billion, or roughly four-fifths of the fund. \[STAT noted\](\) the timing: the midterms are on Nov. 3. (Rews has covered the payments before.) Trump also held White House events on economic projects in Alaska and Iowa, two states with important Senate races. Both projects quickly turned out to be less certain than he made them sound. How much will any of this help? The $500 checks reach only about one in every 200 eligible voters. The $5,000 promise would cost more than $1 trillion and would need Congress, including Democratic votes to get past the Senate’s 60-vote threshold. A CNN poll found 77% of Americans think it is “not too likely” or “not at all likely” the money would ever arrive. Among people who disapprove of Trump, only 11% thought it even “somewhat likely.” Americans said 64%-36% that it was not a “worthwhile” use of federal money, and registered voters told Reuters-Ipsos 66%-18% that making the promise was “inappropriate.” Trump has had views on this sort of thing before. In December 2023 he described Joe Biden’s infrastructure spending, which Congress had appropriated, this way: “He goes around saying, ‘We’ll build a bridge. We’ll build whatever you want,’ you know – trying to buy votes.” On student-loan forgiveness, in June 2023: “this was a way of trying to buy votes. That’s all it was.” Anyway, the ads now have a solution: the super PAC pays. Nobody has suggested the same fix for the $90 checks. At 20 million seniors, they would cost MAGA Inc. about $1.8 billion, a bit more than four times its cash on hand. ## Sources - [Trump ramps up use of taxpayer money to boost Republicans in 2026 midterms](https://cnn.com/2026/10/05/politics/trump-taxpayer-money-midterms) — cnn.com - [Trump says he'll pay for pro-Trump TV ads that the government funded](https://cnbc.com/2026/10/05/trump-ads-election.html) — cnbc.com - [Trump says he will pay for campaign-style ads himself after taxpayer-funded backlash](https://cnn.com/2026/10/05/politics/trump-taxpayer-funded-ads-super-pac) — cnn.com