US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters before departing for Baltimore County, Maryland, on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., US, October 6, 2026. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
The White House aired a new ad promoting President Donald Trump at taxpayer expense, a day after he promised to pay for the ads himself.
The 60-second spot, which touts the U.S. operation against Venezuela's former leader Nicolás Maduro, began running early Tuesday, The New York Times reported.
White House officials said Trump's super PAC did not plan to repay the government for the more than $10 million taxpayers had already spent on the ads, according to the Times. Trump had pledged Monday evening to cover the cost with money from MAGA Inc., his super PAC, after the ads drew criticism from members of both parties.
"The Radical Left is upset with the fact that I am taking Ads, which I consider to be a positive promotion for our Great U.S.A., and paying for them with U.S.A. money," Trump wrote on Truth Social on his way to a rally in Nebraska.
"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, Inc.," he continued.
The post was a rare reversal for a president who has refused to accept most limits on executive power, according to the Times. But White House officials later said the promise applied only "moving forward."
"[T]he president's Truth was not referring to reimbursement," a White House spokesperson said Tuesday.
Yet the Maduro spot is a "taxpayer-funded ad" featuring Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the Times reported. The White House did not answer whether Trump's super PAC would pay for any ads aired after his post.
Asked Tuesday whether he would repay the government, Trump defended the ads as "promotion for the country" and said, "we'll decide," the Times reported.
By midday Tuesday, nearly $11.5 million worth of the ads had run, including about $17,000 for the Maduro spot, according to AdImpact data the Times cited.
Most of that, $7.2 million, paid for an ad that reused material from Trump's 2024 campaign and casts his critics as "villains," the Times reported.
The ads air nationally on cable and network television under a $20 million contract funded by the Department of Homeland Security, and Trump personally instructed his budget director to use taxpayer money for them, the Times reported.
The White House did not say whether it would cancel any of the remaining spending.
Some officials in both parties say the ads, which are airing during a heated midterm campaign, could violate federal laws against using taxpayer money for "publicity or propaganda purposes," the Times reported. The paper said the spots tend to glorify the president rather than promote any specific policy.
"It's not enough to simply have his super PAC slush fund foot the bill — an illegal action itself," Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said in a statement. "Trump must return this money to the American people and there must be a full investigation into this gross waste and abuse of taxpayer dollars."
MAGA Inc. has run most of the ads it appears to be funding through two newly created super PACs linked to it that operate under different names, according to the Times.