Trump says he will pay for taxpayer-funded ads that sparked backlash for glorifying him
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.
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:
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
Robert Tait
In Donald Trump’s telling, he’s a model of incorruptible self-sacrifice.
“I’m the only president that donated his salary,” he told a group of cheering supporters at a Hispanic heritage month celebration in the White House last week, before conceding that George Washington – “a very wealthy person” – might have beaten him to the punch.
“They pay me $550,000 a year, and in my first term, I donated it,” he continued. “In my second term I donated it too. I donated it to fixing the White House. I donated the salary into the White House preservation.”
Trump’s ethical self-depiction was undercut in startling fashion a day later when the crypto company that runs his memecoin offered “the most exclusive dinner in the world” at the president’s members-only Trump National club in Washington.
“Join three legends and featured speaker Donald J Trump,” gushed the invite to the 185 biggest investors in the Trump coin. The top 29 buyers were promised an invitation to an additional “VIP reception with your favourite president and one of the legends”. For the top four donors, a Trump 18-karat gold watch lay in store.
The aim appeared to be to boost sales of the memecoin – called $Trump – over the next two months. Trump personally profits from the coin, and disclosures show he made about $636m from it last year.
With just over a month to go before November’s midterm elections, Democrats seized on the dinner invitation as a political gift as they try to convert concerns over Trump’s perceived corruption into a groundswell of outrage. They theorize it will power a “blue wave” that could enable the party to retake control of the House of Representatives and the Senate on 3 November.
Trump suggests he would let Iran ‘take out’ Los Angeles or San Diego
Lauren Gambino
Leaders in California have denounced Donald Trump as “reckless” and “deranged” after the US president suggested Iran could “take out” Los Angeles and San Diego – two liberal cities in the blue state that has been a frequent target of his administration.
At a rally in ruby red Nebraska on Monday night, Trump told supporters that he hoped to see a “tremendous victory” in the fast-approaching November midterm elections. He then suggested high prices due to the war with Iran were a “small price to pay for keeping the world safe – keeping our country safe”.
“They can take out a city,” Trump said in Grand Island. “Let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego.” The crowd applauded.
“It’ll be over very soon,” Trump said of the war.
The governor and the cities’ mayors quickly condemned the comments. “After sending the National Guard and Marines to occupy California, Donald Trump is now saying our foreign enemies should ‘take out’ Los Angeles and San Diego,” the California governor, Gavin Newsom, said on X. “He is deranged and dangerous.”
Newsom, a Democrat who has repeatedly clashed with Trump over his two terms, said from his press office account: “Let’s be clear: The President is advocating for an attack on 10+ million U.S. residents in two of America’s largest cities. This is not normal. None of this is. And we will continue to remind folks of that every day.”
Karen Bass, the mayor of Los Angeles, assailed the president for making what she called “irresponsible threats” that “could potentially compromise” the safety of America’s second-largest city.
“The role of a president is to protect the country, not to actively threaten it and encourage attacks on American lives,” she said in a statement.
New Jersey congresswoman LaMonica McIver faces legal deadline after giving birth to second child
Rachel Leingang
A US congresswoman who just gave birth to a baby girl faces a deadline this week on whether to seek a rehearing of a federal case against her by the Trump administration after an oversight visit to an immigration detention facility.
LaMonica McIver, 40, represents New Jersey’s 10th congressional district. She gave birth to her second child last Thursday – a rarity for a sitting member of Congress. She is only the 15th member of Congress to give birth while serving and part of a small subset of congresswomen who have school-age children.
McIver first won her seat during a special election in mid-2024, then won a full term later that year. She is also running for re-election this year.
In announcing the birth of her second child after publicly discussing fertility struggles, McIver called being a mom “one of the greatest joys of my life”.
“Getting the chance to raise a family is a priority and a delight for me, something I hope everyone who wants to, gets the chance to do,” she said in a statement last week. “Bringing a child into the world is a reminder not only of why we fight for maternal healthcare and reproductive rights, but of why we fight for the rights and freedoms of our most vulnerable – they are someone’s babies too.”
In late August, a federal appeals court declined to dismiss criminal charges against McIver, who is charged with interfering with an arrest in May 2025 outside Delaney Hall, an immigration detention facility that has drawn protests over poor conditions inside. She is the only member of Congress whom the Department of Justice has indicted, and the charges carry a potential 17 years in prison.
She has pleaded not guilty to the charges and sought to get them dismissed, arguing that she is immune from prosecution under the US constitution’s speech and debate clause because she was doing her job and that she has been selectively prosecuted by the Trump administration.
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.
Trump says he will pay for taxpayer-funded ads that sparked backlash for glorifying him
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.
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.
