Republicans, Democrats and ABC agree the ads are taxpayer money; Trump agrees too — with his PAC's money.

…(cont) By September 29th the number had a shape. Reporting from the Wall Street Journal, relayed through congressional Democrats, put the figure at up to $20 million, drawn from Department of Homeland Security funds routed through Customs and Border Protection. Trump, the Journal reported, had personally pushed for the ads and had been involved in making them. Impeachment calls followed the number the way they usually do.

On October 1st two congressional Democrats, Jamie Raskin and George Whitesides, asked federal watchdogs to open an investigation. The Guardian's own headline that day called the ads "plainly illegal" — the paper's word, not theirs, but nobody in the receipts disputed the arithmetic underneath it.

That is thirteen days: a cable news division, a Senate Majority Leader, and two members of Congress, each independently landing on the same two words — taxpayer money — before the man paying for the ads ever used them himself.

On October 7th the DNC filed suit, citing the statutory ban on using appropriations for "publicity or propaganda purposes," and put a final number on it: over $20 million spent on ads carrying the disclaimer "Paid for by the U.S. Government." The same week, NBC News reported, Trump announced that he and his political action committee, MAGA Inc., would cover the ads going forward.

Run the invoice. For thirteen days the government paid. On the day a lawsuit arrived asking a judge to make it stop, the government stopped paying and a PAC started. Nothing in the receipts says the ads changed. Nothing says the schedule changed. The only line that moved is the one marked who writes the check, hon — and it moved on the exact day someone with standing to sue finally showed up to ask.