A coalition of government watchdog groups has asked a federal judge to intervene after alleging that taxpayer-funded campaign ads associated with President Donald Trump continued airing on national television hundreds of times over the past 24 hours.
The request came nearly a day after US District Judge Jennifer Rochon sided with the watchdogs, ruling that the Trump administration’s taxpayer-funded campaign ads were likely unlawful and ordering them off the air immediately.
In a new court filing Monday evening, however, the plaintiffs said the advertisements continued to run despite the emergency order.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs—including the nonpartisan watchdog Common Cause, Democracy Forward and other groups—cited data from AdImpact. They said the government-funded ads had appeared in nearly 400 spots on programs that began airing at 7 p.m. Eastern the previous night, after the court’s order had taken effect.
The plaintiffs said they were “not presently” seeking contempt sanctions against the administration.
They also acknowledged that the continued broadcasts and the source of their funding could potentially be explained in a declaration the judge had ordered the administration to submit Monday evening.
“But given that the ads have continued to run on October 12—the day after Defendants insisted the ad-buy was no longer effective—Plaintiffs request a status conference to determine Defendants’ compliance,” the lawyers wrote.
“The last PSAs paid for by the government aired yesterday evening,” a source familiar with the matter told Our News Outlet.
A coalition of watchdog groups asked a federal judge to intervene after alleging that President Donald Trump’s taxpayer-funded campaign ads continued airing on national television hundreds of times over the previous 24 hours
The ads featured moments from Trump’s second term and declared, “America will never be a communist country”
“DHS did not receive notice from the court in time to cancel the ad buys,” the source said, adding that outside groups would pay for the public service announcements going forward.
It was unclear how the court would proceed. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to Our News Outlet’s request for comment.
The filing followed Rochon’s order directing the Trump administration to cancel any remaining ads scheduled to air after 6:45 p.m. Eastern on Sunday, when the ruling took effect.
Rochon also rejected the administration’s argument that a ruling on the ad purchases would likely be “moot” because officials did not intend to continue the campaign beyond the end of Sunday.
The government had also told the court that it had already spent an estimated $19 million of the $20 million allocated for the advertising campaign. Rochon declined to accept that argument when she ruled in favor of the plaintiffs.
In her temporary order issued Sunday night, Rochon instructed attorneys for the Trump administration to submit a declaration Monday evening detailing their compliance with the ruling.
It remained unclear whether the administration would address the continued broadcasts in that declaration, a possibility the plaintiffs recognized in their filing.
Even so, they said they “believe the Court should be aware of developments suggesting that the conduct addressed by the Order may be continuing.”
The White House has defended the advertisements as “educational” and “unconditionally patriotic” public service announcements
A White House spokesperson told Our News Outlet earlier this month that the updated ads were “not unlike” public service announcements aired by previous administrations, including those of former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush
The dispute comes after ethics lawyers and some congressional Republicans raised concerns that the ads could violate the Hatch Act, the 1939 law restricting the political activities of most executive branch employees.
‘The president and his administration have gone from breaking the law to trampling it,’ Norm Eisen, a former White House ethics czar during the Obama administration, told the New York Times of the taxpayer-funded ads.
The TV commercials pushed patriotic imagery and videos of Trump’s accomplishments, as well as a promise that America ‘will never be a communist country.’
After criticism from both sides of the aisle over the spots, Trump initially blamed the furor on the ‘radical left’ and announced he’d be paying for them himself in a post to Truth Social.
‘The Radical Left is upset with the fact that I am taking Ads, which I consider to be a positive promotion for our Great U.S.A., and paying for them with U.S.A. money,’ he wrote.
‘This is a rather standard thing to do but, rather than doing that, although nothing will make them happy, I have decided to do the Patriotic Ads, among others, and pay for them myself, and with money I raised for MAGA, Inc.’
The White House, for its part, previously defended the ads as ‘educational’ and ‘unconditionally patriotic’ public service announcements.
A White House spokesperson told Our News Outlet earlier this month that the updated ads are ‘not unlike’ public service announcements (PSAs) run by previous administrations – including under former President Barack Obama and former President George W Bush.
The televised ad spots are ‘clearly not political’ and do not have a ‘call to action,’ a White House spokesperson told Our News Outlet in response to an earlier request for comment.
‘These public service announcements are about reminding Americans to love their country and understand what makes it worth defending, at home, at our borders, and abroad,’ the spokesperson added.
