U.S. President Donald Trump with White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 16, 2026. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
The New York Times reports one day after President Trump said his super PAC would reimburse taxpayers for television ads promoting him, the White House has backtracked on the claim.
“White House officials said the group did not plan to reimburse the government for the more than $10 million it had already spent on the ads,” reports the Times’ Shane Goldmacher and Maggie Haberman
Trump announced on Monday evening that he was planning to have his super PAC, MAGA Inc., pay for the ads, which had drawn backlash from members of both parties. The White House officials later said that his promise would only apply to ads “moving forward.”
“Then, on Tuesday, a new taxpayer-funded ad — bragging about the American success in taking out Venezuela’s former leader Nicolás Maduro — began airing on television,” report the Times. “The new ad features Mr. Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.”
Both Democrats and Republican officials have slammed the ads, which promote Trump at a time when his party is getting murdered in polls. Others say the ads violate federal laws against misusing taxpayer funds for “publicity or propaganda purposes.”
But a White House spokesperson told the Times on Tuesday that “the president’s Truth [Social post] was not referring to reimbursement.”
By the time Trump posted the message, the Times reports more than $10 million of such ads had run. And when Trump was asked on Tuesday if he would reimburse the government for the ads, “he demurred and defended them as ‘promotion for the country’ and said ‘we’ll decide,’” reports the Times.
“As of midday Tuesday, nearly $11.5 million has run, including a small sum for the new 60-second ad about the Venezuela operation. So far about $17,000 had been spent on the new ad, which began airing in the early hours of the day,” said the Times.
The New York Times reported earlier that Trumppersonally instructed his budget director to use taxpayer money for TV ads praising him and his presidency, “setting in motion a $20 million contract that used funds from the Department of Homeland Security, according to people familiar with the matter.”
Additionally, government sources told NBC News that Trump did not even alert administrators that their budgets would be footing the bill.
“They didn’t sign off on it,” an official said of CBP leaders. “They were thinking, ‘There’s no way they’re going to try to take the funding from CBP for those ads.’”