Court Halts U.S. Government Ad Campaign Promoting Trump Funded by Tax Dollars

A U.S. government advertising campaign criticized for using taxpayer funds to promote President Donald Trump has been halted by a court.

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York issued a temporary restraining order on the 11th (local time), ruling that the government illegally diverted federal funds to run the ads and ordering the cancellation of the remaining inventory.

The court ordered, "No contracts allowing the production, distribution, execution, or broadcast of the questioned advertisements shall be entered into, renewed, or expanded."

The U.S. Department of Justice argued that the lawsuit was moot because the controversial ads were ending that day, but the court ordered the cancellation of all remaining inventory, including segments scheduled to air that night.

The ads, a total of five of which have been broadcast since late last month, praise President Trump and repeat his political messages.

They also rebroadcast ads from Trump's past presidential campaign and covered the arrest of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

The issue was that 20 million dollars (approx. 26.8 billion won) for these ads, which effectively promote Trump personally ahead of the midterm elections, came from the budget of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

DHS argued that the budget could be used to promote border security and related efforts, but the court did not accept this defense.

The Associated Press reported legal experts' views that such budget execution violated federal laws prohibiting government funds designated and approved by Congress for specific purposes from being used for political promotion or propaganda.

The White House protested that the ads were public service announcements for policy promotion that previous administrations had also aired, but criticism over the source of the ad budget emerged even within the Republican Party.

Democracy Forward, the legal group representing the plaintiffs, emphasized, "There is neither legal justification nor precedent for a president to use funds allocated by government agencies and Congress for other purposes to influence election outcomes serving his own political ends."

As criticism mounted over the ads, President Trump stated that he would pay for the costs out of his own campaign account.

However, a White House official stated there are no immediate plans to reimburse the government for the 20 million dollars already spent, leaving the question of fund recovery as another contentious issue.

As the temporary restraining order issued by the court on this day has a duration of two weeks, attention is focused on whether the court will issue a preliminary injunction with a longer effect.
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.