Richard Painter, former chief ethics lawyer to President George W. Bush, blasted the waste of $200 million ‘national emergency’ ads inflating President Donald Trump’s ego.
“If every problem is a national emergency you wind up with a president and executive branch that can do whatever they want," said Painter, who now teaches corporate law at the University of Minnesota.
“The ads have been popping up on Fox News, Good Morning America, the Today Show and Univision,” reports Bloomberg opinion Columnist Patricia Lopez. “They feature Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem against a backdrop bristling with American flags, galloping past Mount Rushmore on horseback, or dressed as an ICE agent.”
But the $200 million ad blitz is not your typical low-budget public service announcement, said Lopez. Axios labels it "the most expensive political ad campaign of the year." Noem’s DHS sidestepped the competitive bidding process required for most government contracts, relying on what Lopez called “a favorite Trump administration tactic” for fast-tracking solutions: the national emergency.
“President Donald Trump has deployed it for everything from energy and tariffs to drug enforcement and the border. The agency insisted the no-bid contract was needed because ‘any delay in providing these critical communications to the public will increase the spread of misinformation, especially misinformation by smugglers.’
But initial “critical communications to the public” showed only Noem thanking Trump for securing the border and “putting America first,” said Lopez. She also issued an overtly political message that blamed earlier “weak politicians” for actions that “left our borders open” and “put American lives at risk.”
Painter is irritated at the administration’s love for flaunting rules and process, particularly a competitive bidding process that exists to keep taxpayer-funded, so-called public service announcements within reasonable cost. The process establishes the parameters of the project, lays out pricing, timelines and vendor qualifications — all of which are crucial to more “careful stewards of taxpayer funds.”
“You have to exercise great care that such power is not abused,” said Painter. “Even after 9/11 we wound up with some overreach. The border is a problem. It is not a national emergency."
He added that side-stepping the process opens the door to “fraud, shady connections or contracts awarded to big donors or well-connected friends and relatives.”
In March, Lopez said House Democrats Bennie Thompson (R-Miss.), ranking member on the Homeland Security Committee, and Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), ranking member on the Oversight Committee, tried to obtain documents and details about what they termed Trump’s “vanity project.” Thompson and Connolly noted in a letter to Noem that her own statement from a 2025 political conference showed Trump had specifically asked her for a “marketing campaign,” stating “I want you to thank me for closing the border.” And that Noem replied in that response: "Yes sir, I will thank you for closing the border."
Read the Bloomberg opinion at this Kansas City Star link.