US President Donald Trump purses his lips before answering a reporter's question on the day he makes an announcement regarding personal investment accounts for children in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., US, October 7, 2026. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
A federal judge received a paper trail showing how President Donald Trump's administration turned $20 million meant for border-security ceremonies into TV ads promoting himself.
The records appear in a lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court in Manhattan by the government watchdog group Common Cause, an Alabama legislative candidate, a building workers' union, and the union's political action committee.
It names the Department of Homeland Security, the Office of Management and Budget and the White House as defendants.
The White House has called the ads "public service announcements" that are "educational and unapologetically patriotic," the complaint says.
"These ads are not public-service announcements—they are personal publicity and political propaganda through and through," the lawsuit argues.
Trump told OMB Director Russell Vought "to come up with the money" for the ads "from within the government," the complaint says, citing reporting by The New York Times.
According to the filing, the money came from $6.1 billion Congress gave Customs and Border Protection last year for border security. Part of that funding was meant for events such as memorials for officers killed in the line of duty, agency anniversaries and ceremonies honoring crime victims.
The filing says the administration had set aside $500,000 for such events. On Sept. 19, Vought's office added $20 million.
The next day, DHS signed a $20 million contract with LMD, the advertising agency producing the ads, the lawsuit says. Days later, the ads began airing nationwide.
"Congress directed the funds at issue to commemorate fallen public servants, among other things, not to attack the President's political enemies," the complaint states.
The complaint says five ads have aired so far. One, "Final Battle," is identical to a 2024 Trump campaign ad except for its disclaimer, which now reads "Paid for by the U.S. Government."
"This is the final battle. With you at my side, we will demolish the 'deep state.' … We will throw off the sick political class that hates our country. We will rout the fake news media, and we will liberate America from these villains, once and for all," Trump says in the ad, according to the lawsuit.
Another ad flashes the words "AMERICA WILL NEVER BE A COMMUNIST COUNTRY" and ends with UFC President Dana White calling Trump "the toughest, most resilient person I've ever met," the filing says.
None of the ads mentions DHS or any specific program, the lawsuit argues.
"And it's hard to imagine government ads that flout those prohibitions more than Trump's taxpayer-funded ads," the complaint states, citing a ban on spending federal money on "publicity or propaganda" that Congress has renewed every year since 1952.
As of Wednesday morning, the ads had aired 13,971 times and drawn an estimated 1.39 billion impressions, or times viewed, at a cost to taxpayers of about $12.6 million, according to ad-tracking firm AdImpact estimates cited in the lawsuit.
On Monday, Trump wrote on Truth Social that he would pay for the ads himself and with money raised for his super PAC, MAGA Inc., the complaint says. He also called using taxpayer money for the ads "a rather standard thing to do."
"[T]he president's Truth was not referring to reimbursement," a White House spokesperson said the next day, according to the complaint, which says the administration will not recover the taxpayer money spent on the ads.
The lawsuit says the "Final Battle" ad aired 773 times on Tuesday, over 150 more than on Monday. A new ad about the U.S. military's capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro debuted the same day, also paid for by the government.
"No amount of money can be spent to match the powerful message that the 'U.S. government' backs the opposition," the union argues in the filing.
The groups asked the court to immediately block the government from paying for the ads and to order officials to recover any money paid out but not yet spent, according to the complaint.