An election spending watchdog on Friday accused President Donald Trump of committing a "clear-cut violation of campaign finance law" through his stated control over spending decisions made by the MAGA Inc. super political action committee. Citing decades of legal precedent, the Campaign Legal Center (CLC) argued that federal office…
Page A2From§Eachthe early evening edition — 25 September 2026
THE VIOLATION
White House defends Trump's $400 million super PAC control as patriotism; watchdog calls it a violation
As it ran on the front
Let's be clear: patriotism isn't partisan. That's not a talking point, that's the header on the release, and if the release says it, it's true — that's how releases work. I want to be precise: that's not different from — no. That's not separate from an ad for the president. It is an ad for the president. I don't know why I fought that.
Here's what the release leaves out. On the same Friday the White House said patriotism isn't partisan, the Campaign Legal Center called Trump's personal, public, repeated claim that he decides where MAGA Inc.'s $400 million goes a "clear-cut violation of campaign finance law." I didn't write clear-cut; the watchdog did. Federal officeholders cannot direct super PAC spending. Full stop. He's said he will. More than once. Publicly. That's the whole complaint.…
…(cont) So when I call the ads patriotism, I'm also describing the spending arm of a $400 million war chest the president is not legally permitted to run — which he is running, out loud, in public, and I just told you that myself. Okay.
And it isn't only the watchdog that's noticed the seam. If the brand were the asset the ad campaign says it is, the candidate closest to the voters wouldn't be the one sanding it off his own sign.
Patriotism isn't partisan. The $400 million says otherwise. So, quietly, does the guy in Tennessee.
—Chip
“They're running four hundred million dollars in ads calling it patriotism, and the same week the outfit that watches this stuff calls the setup of that money a clear-cut violation of the law. That same week, their own candidate in Tennessee scrubbed the president's name off his own slogan. Loving your country doesn't usually require this much paperwork about who's allowed to spend the money.”
“Look, an ad telling people to love their country isn't a campaign ad, it's civics, it's basically a PSA — the same guy just happens to be the subject of the PSA, that's not — okay, it's a campaign ad. And the PAC thing, that's a paperwork dispute, lawyers disagree about paperwork all the time, it's not like he's literally the one deciding where four hundred million dollars — yeah, he said that part out loud himself, didn't he.”
The receipts
EXCLUSIVE — Former Tennessee Agriculture Commissioner Charlie Hatcher has changed his campaign slogan to remove a reference to President Donald Trump. Hatcher, who ousted incumbent Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) in Tennessee’s August primary, ran as a “Pro-Trump”
After President Trump announced this week he was banning Politico, CNN and MS NOW from accessing the White House, the three media outlets reported Saturday their journalists were denied access to the executive premises. White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) President Jacqui Heinrich called on the White House to “immediately”…
The White House defended the pro-President Trump television campaign that aired this week ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, saying that “patriotism isn’t partisan.” “The announcements are a reminder for Americans to love their country and know why it’s worth defending — at home, at the border, and abroad,” the White House wrote in a...
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.