President Donald Trump's administration has come under fire in the last week for yet another political advertisement funded by taxpayer money, this time a proclamation with dramatic visuals and music that America will "never be a Communist country" — which legal experts have blasted as flagrantly against federal law.
One question has remained: where he got the money from the federal budget to do this. But it looks like the answer might be revealed.
According to Punchbowl News' Samantha Handler, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) of the House Appropriations Committee has flagged that the Office of Management and Budget transferred out $20 billion allocated under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) for Customs and Border Protection, elsewhere within the Department of Homeland Security to fund advertisements.
In other words, he effectively robbed money from his own immigration enforcement agencies — which he has spent his entire term treating as a top priority for the administration.
“When Democrats reclaim control of Congress next year, the House Appropriations Committee will work to uncover and reverse misuses of taxpayer money like this and hold those who abused their power accountable," DeLauro told Handler.
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, was gobsmacked by the new reporting.
"Wow," he wrote on X. "So those political ads which Trump is illegally running on TV? Those are actually paid for by money stolen from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. You can’t make this stuff up!"