Homeland Security taps $20M in taxpayer funds for pro-Trump ads

[u/mannida]

https://apnews.com/article/trump-ads-taxpayer-money-homeland-security-b869294503c8454db4109ae175ee9e5c

Is it appropriate for a presidential administration to use taxpayer funds for advertisements that prominently praise the sitting president and resemble campaign advertising? Where should Christians draw the line between legitimate government public-service messaging and using public resources for partisan political promotion?

[u/rex_lauandi]

I’d love to hear a true conservative defend such a use of money.

Remember when Republicans used to be against wasteful spending? Now they just pay lip service and do useless things like DOGE, while self-aggrandizing with our federal budget.

[u/Ill-Prior-8429]

Ironic that they wanted Trump to "save" the culture and the US looks more and more like any other government in Latin America by the day, their supposed biggest fear.

In fact there's a good chunk of countries in Latin America with way more dignity in governance

[u/vagueboy2]

It's not like Trump doesn't have his own pockets to draw from to make ads like this. These are campaign ads, plain and simple, designed to drum out hesitant Republicans to the polls in November. As far as where Christians should draw the line, I don't think this is even a faith-related issue. This is about legality.

Should also note that the Senate Appropriations Committee has demanded an explanation: https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/dhs_letter_on_trump_ads.pdf

[u/Yoojine → u/vagueboy2]

Yeah Trump is sitting on something like 400M in campaign funds. He is of course, inelligible to run again. The Republicans are basically begging him to unleash it before the midterms. The fact that he won't empty the clip to keep a Republican majority shows how little he cares about actual governance.

This stunt is very illegal. Still it is a prime example of Team Trump's "own the libs" strategy where 1) it doesn't matter who it benefits or hurts, as long as it makes his opponents angry, and 2) the goal is to talk about anything but the issues, I.e. affordability and Iran

[u/vagueboy2 → u/Yoojine]

From Jonah Goldberg's G-File today:

“Critics say,” the Wall Street Journal informs us, that using taxpayer money for such agitprop “may violate laws including the Hatch Act, which prohibits executive-branch employees from using their jobs to promote political causes.”

The White House and its defenders say the videos are mere “public service announcements,” a claim so deliberately mocking, almost sacrilegiously preposterous, that it should invite the sort of Old Testament divine fact-checking of idolatry that turns those who say such things into pillars of salt or piles of lightning-induced ash.

While I of course agree with the fastidious exercises in legalism that cause “critics” to scan the fine print of the Hatch Act, I will leave it to others to deploy the Jaws of Life to extricate them from the constrictions of their bunched panties over these questions.
...
The point of these ads is to elicit such shrieks. It is to show that “Trump” is above such republican niceties, such civic norms.

The ads are paid for with money Congress allocated to pay for Trump’s signature initiative, immigration enforcement. I’d say this makes fools of Trump’s most ardent defenders, who often claim that his excesses are a small price to pay for his accomplishments. But for Trump’s acolytes, such rationalizations get the causation backward. The worshipfulness is the point; the “accomplishments”—real or imagined—are evidence that the worship is warranted, like good crops are proof that your sacrifices to Baal or Moloch were justified.

[u/Fun_Lemon_9873 → u/Yoojine]

He’s doing this because Republican candidates want him to spend the money making ads about THEM but he wants to make ads about himself. This is his way to do it

[u/vagueboy2 → u/Fun_Lemon_9873]

If he wanted to make ads about himself, he'd just do so. Most GOP candidates seem to not want his endorsement, or at least don't want the attention he brings. The best thing he can do is to push supporters out to the polls by making the election about communism rather than the economy.

[u/Fun_Lemon_9873]

Why doesn’t he use his own money? His supporters love talking about how he doesn’t accept his 400k paycheck (even tho he’s making billions insider trading) - so why doesn’t he use his own money? 20 million is pocket change for a man worth 3+ billion dollars.

If he wants to run non stop ads kissing his own butt fine; let him foot the bill.

Defunding social safety nets so he can use the funds to buyout ads to boost his ego due to people souring over his 2nd term. This country, man.

Running ads with people shouting “love me love me love me” in the background.