President Donald Trump said on Monday that he would instead pay for three taxpayer-funded, nationally broadcast advertisements featuring him himself or use money raised by the MAGA political committee.
The advertisements were scheduled to air just before the November congressional elections. They promote what Trump has called a 'golden age of America'.
One spot shows Trump declaring that 'America will never be a communist country' as a chorus repeats 'love me'. Another pairs images of Mount Rushmore with footage of Trump praising a 'golden age of America'.
Ethics experts and lawmakers from both parties criticised the advertisements, questioning whether public money was being used to advance Trump politically. Critics said the spots could breach long-standing limits on government propaganda and political activity.
The White House and Trump had defended the advertisements as patriotic public service announcements, likening them to ones made by previous presidents.
In a Truth Social post, Trump called the ads 'a positive promotion for our Great U.S.A' and said taxpayers would no longer fund them. He wrote: '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'.
The change leaves the central dispute over the original public spending unresolved: whether federal funds can be used for advertisements that celebrate a president and his political record.
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