President Donald Trump speaks to the press, ahead of departing the White House for Joint Base Andrews en route to Beijing, China, in Washington, D.C., on May 12, 2026. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
President Donald Trump suffered another legal setback Wednesday after a federal judge blocked his administration from using $20 million in taxpayer money for television advertisements praising the president.
U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan ordered officials to stop developing and airing the advertisements and halt their distribution, Bloomberg reported.
“The court is unpersuaded,” AliKhan wrote of the administration’s promise to stop using public money for the ads.
The sharply worded ruling follows a separate court order in New York blocking the taxpayer-funded advertisements through mid-November, well beyond the Nov. 3 elections, according to Bloomberg.
AliKhan concluded Wednesday that officials “likely used public dollars to unlawfully finance a national campaign in the final weeks before the November 2026 elections.”
The judge also questioned Trump’s Oct. 5 pledge to have his political operation pay for the advertisements instead of taxpayers.
“But that promise went unfulfilled—the ads continued to air with the ‘Paid for by the U.S. Government’ disclosure for at least another week,” she added in the blistering rebuke of the administration.
“This sequence of events gives the court reason to doubt Defendants’ assurances that the same injury will not recur,” AliKahn concluded.
The Trump administration must submit a report by Friday detailing its compliance with the ruling.
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