Pay the Taxpayers Back, Then Close the Loophole

President Trump has decided that his political committee, MAGA Inc., will pay for the television ads celebrating him and his administration that taxpayers have been funding since late September. That is the right decision. It is also an admission. If the ads were truly ordinary public service announcements, there would be no reason to move them onto a super PAC’s books four weeks before a national election.

The reversal came only after criticism from both parties. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the spots propaganda. Republican Senator Thom Tillis compared the president to Viktor Orbán, and Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana said plainly that no official should spend public money on private ads for himself. When senators from the president’s own party are saying that, the line has been crossed.

Look at what the public paid for. One ad shows Mr. Trump vowing to defeat communism, socialism and Marxism. Another is almost identical to a 2024 Trump campaign commercial. The money came through a $20 million Homeland Security contract for a “national media campaign,” and CBS News reported it traced to a grant to Customs and Border Protection. Estimates of what has been spent so far range from about $1.4 million at the end of September to at least $10 million, according to figures from the tracking firm AdImpact reported by the Associated Press and NBC News.

The White House says only that MAGA Inc. will pay going forward. Asked whether the government would be reimbursed, Mr. Trump said, “we’ll decide.” That is not good enough. A super PAC with more than $400 million in the bank can easily repay every dollar of public money spent on these spots, and it should do so promptly, with an accounting the public can check.

The administration’s defense deserves a fair hearing. Presidents of both parties have used public service announcements to explain programs and encourage Americans to take part in them, and the line between informing the public and promoting the person in charge is not always bright. But an ad that recycles campaign footage and ideological slogans weeks before an election is not on the blurry side of that line.

That is why the watchdogs should finish their work regardless of what MAGA Inc. now does. Representatives Jamie Raskin and George Whitesides have asked the Government Accountability Office and the Office of Special Counsel to examine whether the spending violated the law barring appropriated funds for publicity or propaganda and the rules limiting partisan activity by federal employees. Those findings should be made public before Nov. 3.

Congress should also act. It can require that any federally funded advertising featuring the president or a cabinet member be cleared by an agency’s inspector general, bar such ads entirely in the months before a federal election, and require public disclosure of the cost and contractor for every spot within days of its airing. Those rules should apply to every administration, including the next Democratic one.

Voters are being asked this fall to weigh the cost of living, health care and the economy. They should not also have to wonder whether their own tax dollars are being used to persuade them how to vote. Repay the money, release the findings, and write the rules so this does not happen again.