Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters Monday that while he likes President Trump’s new ads pledging to “cast out the communists, Marxists and fascists,” they “shouldn’t be paid for by taxpayer dollars.” Thune warned Trump about using taxpayer money for ads that resemble the political ads he ran online during the 2024…
Page F3From§Eachthe late evening edition — 28 September 2026
PAID FOR BY YOU
Trump's own party calls his ad false and improperly funded; taxpayers have paid $1.7 million anyway.
As it ran on the front
On September 24, an ad promoting President Trump, paid for by the federal government, began running on network and national cable. The soundtrack was JMSN's "Love Me." JMSN says he never licensed the song for this use. By September 25, the same footage — Trump at rallies, at White House events, alongside military — was airing on Fox News, Newsmax, and CBS, three networks that agree on little else in a normal week.
Three days later, on September 28, three Republicans found the file open on their own desks. Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters he likes the ad — it promises to "cast out the communists, Marxists and fascists" — but said spots like it "shouldn't be paid for by taxpayer dollars." That is an objection to the account, not the content. Mick Mulvaney, former White House chief of staff, went further the same day and called the ad's central claim "flat out" wrong. That is an objection to the content, not the account. Senator John Kennedy also raised the ad publicly that day, on a CBS panel; the transcript here does not carry his own words, only that he did.…
…(cont) The ledger, run separately, does not resolve either objection — it just names a number. The figure covers three spots together; no accounting on file breaks out what the hallway ad — the one with "the deep state," "the globalists," and the vow to "rout the fake news media" — cost running on its own. The White House calls the campaign a public service announcement, the label past administrations used for spots about Medicare drug coverage and ACA sign-up deadlines. This one carries a hallway, a voiceover, and a share of $1.7 million, hon.
Thune's objection and Mulvaney's objection do not cancel each other; they stack. One says the money is wrong. The other says the message is wrong. Both are on the same team as the man in the ad, and both said so on the record, on the same day the meter was already past $1.7 million. Nothing in the file says the ad came down afterward.
“They call it a public service announcement, same as the one that told you when Medicare picked up your drug costs — except this one's just the president asking you to love him, set to a song the guy never licensed. Thune says it shouldn't come out of your pocket, Mulvaney says the whole thing's flat-out false, and it's still running, three ads, $1.7 million, this week. That's not a service, that's a toll booth on the evening news, and you're the one who pays every time it airs.”
“Look, it's a PSA, it's — okay, it's not shaped like the Medicare one, sure, but the label's right there on screen, "Paid for by the U.S. Government," so nobody's hiding anything. And yes, Thune's got concerns about the account and Mulvaney's got concerns about the content, but that's just Republicans doing oversight, that's the system working — wait, did I just call two guys from his own party trashing his ad "the system working"? That's — huh.”
Earlier in this story
- Marshall calls Democrat's beef sermon too woke for a party whose own former governor just endorsed him. By Sal · the early bird edition, 28 September 2026
The receipts
Former White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney on Monday said that a new taxpayer-funded TV advertisement from the White House promoting President Trump is "flat out" wrong. The 30-second ad features Trump saying in a voiceover that the U.S. will "cast out the communists, Marxists and fascists" and "rout the fake news media, and...
The federal government has spent at least $1.7 million to air three different TV ads featuring President Donald Trump in recent days, according to an estimate from AdImpact, which tracks and analyzes political ad spending across television, digital and connected TV channels. Critics say the ads could violate federal propaganda law. The…
After promising taxpayers would not pay 'one dime' for the ballroom, Republicans sought $1 billion in taxpayer funds for it NBC News, May 2026
GOP Sen. John Kennedy slams Trump's taxpayer-funded adA new, taxpayer-funded ad campaign glorifying President Trump is facing bipartisan backlash. Former RNC communications director Doug Heye and Democratic strategist Hyma Moore join "The Takeout" to discuss.
Outrage mounted Friday over a taxpayer-funded television advertisement glorifying President Donald Trump, with critics describing the 30-second spot as self-aggrandizing propaganda and questioning whether the administration violated federal law restricting the use of public money for partisan communications. The ad—which aired this week…
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) joined growing criticism Monday against a taxpayer-funded “PSA” campaign from the Trump administration that includes repurposed campaign materials from the 2024 presidential election. The latest ad, which includes an on-screen disclaimer that it’s “Paid for by the U.S.
· New Trump-focused "Love Me" ad campaign paid for by taxpayers hits airwaves from the morgue, 25 Sep 2026
· New Trump-focused "Love Me" ad campaign paid for by taxpayers hits airwaves from the morgue, 24 Sep 2026
· Pro-Trump "Love Me" ad campaign paid for by taxpayers sparks controversy from the morgue, 25 Sep 2026
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.