Taxpayer-Funded Trump Ads Continued Airing After Federal Judge Ordered Halt
publishers 19articles 21first reported 10 Oct, 16:08 UTCdeveloping since 10 Oct · 10 editions
A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to stop airing taxpayer-funded advertisements promoting President Donald Trump, but several of the ads continued to run after the court’s deadline, according to advertising data reviewed by CNN.
U.S. District Judge Jennifer Rochon issued a 14-day temporary restraining order Sunday, barring the administration from creating, placing or airing the challenged advertisements. The order took effect at 6:45 p.m. Eastern time. AdImpact data showed that two ads aired hundreds of times after that deadline, while another aired as late as Monday afternoon, CNN reported.
The Department of Homeland Security allocated $20 million for the campaign from U.S. Customs and Border Protection funds and classified the spots as public service announcements. In a court filing, a senior DHS official said about $19 million had already been spent through media purchases by LMD Agency and that no additional buys were planned after Sunday.
A coalition led by the nonpartisan watchdog Common Cause sued, alleging that the campaign exceeded purposes authorized by Congress and violated restrictions on federally funded publicity or propaganda. The Justice Department had argued that court intervention was unnecessary because the campaign was already scheduled to end Sunday.
The White House has defended the advertisements as public service announcements. Trump previously said his political organization would pay for ads promoting him, though the White House later said that statement did not refer to reimbursing the government.
HOW THIS STORY WAS MADE
Written from 8 articles, 4 with the publisher's own text; 7 independent newsrooms once syndicated copies count as one; this version written 54 h after the record first saw the story; the editor kept it as written.
- Publishers
- 19
- Source articles
- 21
- Given to the writer
- 8, 4 with the article's own text
- Independent newsrooms
- 7
- This version written
- 54 h after the record first saw the story
- Second model (editor)
- kept as written
- Publication gate
- passed
- Human review
- none
WHAT THE EDITOR DID
The second model checked the writer's draft against the same sources and published it as written.
Written by a language model from the sources above, then checked by a second model that may only cut, attribute or correct. How it works →