Page A5From§Eachthe breakfast edition — 6 October 2026
THE SWAP
As it ran on the front
On Monday night, President Trump told a rally in Nebraska that high prices from the Iran war were "a small price to pay for keeping the world safe." By the end of the night, he had put a price on something else: his own face on television. The president announced he would stop using taxpayer money for the pro-Trump ads running across the country, calling the spots "a positive promotion for our Great U.S.A." and "a rather standard thing to do." Then, in the same post, he said his political committee, MAGA, Inc., would pay instead.
The ads themselves were never the question. By October 1, the same kind of ad was running on CNN and MS NOW, the two networks Trump's White House had tried to bar from its own grounds weeks earlier. By then, the money trail had been traced: Homeland Security funds, the same drawer that pays for border enforcement, redirected to pay for a montage of the president at rallies and sporting events. House Democrats asked federal watchdogs to investigate. Senate Republicans, who otherwise approve of the message, warned him off touching that particular pot of cash.…
…(cont) What changed Monday was not the ads. It was the invoice.
So the taxpayer is out the millions already spent airing the spots on five networks, and the president's donors are now on the hook for the sequel — money raised, by his own account, for MAGA, Inc., not for the government. Nothing about who appears in the ad changed. Nothing about which channels carry it changed. Only the account number did. That is not a reform. That is bookkeeping performed in public, as if moving a charge from one card to another were the same thing as deciding not to buy it.
“They tell you they heard the complaints, then they tell you the exact same ad is getting paid for out of a different wallet. The first batch of your tax dollars already bought the airtime; now his donors get to fund the rerun. That's not a reform, that's a receipt getting mailed to a different address.”
“Look, these are positive promotion for our Great U.S.A., a rather standard thing to do, nothing political about a president thanking himself on television — wait, did I just say that? Fine, the money's coming from the super PAC now, so legally it's totally different, even though it's the same ads on the same networks. I mean, it's privately funded, which is better, except it's money raised specifically to help him politically, so — okay, it's the same thing, just not your money anymore. That's still a win.”
The receipts
After Trump promised taxpayers would not pay "one dime" for the ballroom, Republicans proposed $1 billion in taxpayer funds for it. Congress rejected the ask NBC News, May 2026
Trump says he will stop using taxpayer funds for ads after bipartisan pushbackThe ads, which tout Trump and his policies, could have violated US laws barring public government funds being spent on political advertising.
Trump says that he will no longer use taxpayer funds to pay for a pro-Trump ad blitz ahead of the midterm elections, saying his super PAC will now pay for them.
President’s U-turn comes after Democrats and Republicans condemned use of tax dollars for pro-Trump ads Donald Trump said on Monday he would pay for taxpayer-funded, pro-Trump ads “with money I raised for MAGA, Inc.”, a political action committee, after the television advertisements glorifying himself sparked a major backlash. In a…
Facing widespread backlash, President Donald Trump said late Monday that he would stop unlawfully funding political ads with taxpayer dollars and instead use money from a pro-Trump super PAC—a scheme that watchdogs said would also be illegal. Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that he has "decided to do the Patriotic Ads, among…
President claims commercials were ‘positive promotion for our Great USA’ but says he will now cover their cost Q&A: The Iran war is unpopular, but will it cost Trump the midterms? Our reporters answer your questions Sign up for Breaking News US email Donald Trump will begin his day in Washington. At 1pm ET, he and first lady Melania…
· Impeachment Calls Grow as Dems Say Up to $20 Million in Taxpayer Funds Were Used for 'Illegal' Pro-Trump Ads from the morgue, 29 Sep 2026
· Lawmakers call for action on ‘plainly illegal’ taxpayer-funded ads to promote Trump from the morgue, 1 Oct 2026
· GOP senators push back on Trump’s taxpayer-funded ad from the morgue, 29 Sep 2026
· 'Just Despicable': MS NOW and CNN Air Trump's Illegal Taxpayer-Funded Ads from the morgue, 1 Oct 2026
· 'Pure Cult Propaganda': Outrage Grows Over 'Illegal' Taxpayer-Funded Ad of Trump Begging for Your Love from the morgue, 25 Sep 2026
· Trump defends self-promoting taxpayer-funded ads from the morgue, 30 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.