The White House’s official rapid response account lashed out at CNN anchor Jake Tapper after he objected to a taxpayer-funded commercial praising President Donald Trump that ran during an NFL game on Sunday, Oct. 4, 2026.
“Blatantly political ad (taken from 2024 campaign speech) paid for by your/my tax dollars airs during NFL game,” Tapper wrote on X.
“Fake Tapper thinks patriotism is political,” the White House’s Rapid Response 47 account shot back. The account also argued that government-financed Obamacare commercials and Super Bowl spots had never drawn the same outrage, posting a roster of past taxpayer-funded advertising that stretched from former Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt through George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and covered wartime propaganda, anti-drug campaigns, Obamacare and public health messaging.
Inside the $20 Million Ad Blitz
Trump, 80, has rolled out at least 13 spots that his administration describes as apolitical “public service announcements.” The productions praise the president’s record, lean heavily on his 2024 campaign material, and have surfaced in the run-up to the midterm elections in November.
The Department of Homeland Security has set aside $20 million to pay for the campaign, according to reports. CNN has obtained 12 of the ads, two of which had already aired. The spots run from 15 seconds to three minutes and carry titles including “Resilience,” “King of the Jungle” and “Military Hype.”
In them, Trump touts his record, poses with fighter jets and Marine One, promotes his military action in Iran and the effort to arrest Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro, and celebrates the UFC spectacle he staged on the White House lawn. Others promote his tariffs. One of the commercials aired on Sept. 23, the day the president rolled out the red carpet for Chinese leader Xi Jinping on U.S. soil.
Republicans Balk at the Taxpayer Tab
The criticism has not come only from the press. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who has shown a willingness to break with the president, likened the ads to the messaging used by Viktor Orban, the authoritarian former Hungarian leader.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said the spots should not be footed by taxpayers. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, has taken a similar line, describing the matter as anything but a close call.
Experts contend the ads, which began running in late September, differ from earlier government campaigns because they are not built to help Americans access any particular program. They also appear to run afoul of a law barring the use of congressionally appropriated money for propaganda.
A Widening Fight With the Press
The clash with Tapper is the latest flashpoint in an escalating confrontation between the administration and news organizations. On Friday, Sept. 18, Trump announced on Truth Social that he was barring CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House, accusing the three outlets of reporting fiction and lies and suggesting more bans would follow.
Two days later, U.N. Ambassador Mike Waltz, 52, appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” and defended the bans, telling host Dana Bash on Sunday, Sept. 20, that he hoped the media would examine its own practices and complaining about what he called gossip journalism built on a single anonymous source. Bash, a decades-long CNN journalist, countered that national security concerns are taken seriously by every serious newsroom and that scrutiny of a president is aimed at establishing facts, not at pleasing him.
On March 5, Dylan Johnson, a Trump administration official at the State Department, used social media to dismiss as propaganda a live report delivered from Iran by Frederik Pleitgen, CNN’s senior international correspondent, during the conflict there.
The dispute has now reached the courts. On Wednesday, Oct. 7, the Democratic National Committee sued the Trump administration in federal court in Washington, alleging the ads are illegal government propaganda. Trump has defended them as “positive promotion for our Great U.S.A.” and said future spots will be paid for through his MAGA Inc. super PAC.
For now, the government-funded commercials keep rolling out, each one closing with the same on-screen line: “Paid for by the U.S. Government.”
