Trump's $20M Ad Blitz Has a 'God Made Trump' Spot — and You're Paying for All of It

In 60 seconds: The Trump administration has spent at least $5.6 million in taxpayer money on TV ads praising the president — including a three-minute spot portraying him as a messiah — funded through a $20 million Homeland Security contract weeks before the midterms.

Your tax dollars are now buying television ads about how great Donald Trump is. Not metaphorically — literally. According to the New York Times, Trump personally directed the use of taxpayer money for a campaign-style ad blitz praising his presidency, and CNN has now obtained the spots: at least thirteen of them, including a three-minute film that presents the president as a near-messianic figure while a narrator intones, "So God made Trump." The total budget set aside for this: $20 million, routed through the Department of Homeland Security, weeks before the November midterms.

President Donald Trump in the Oval Office, August 2026. The White House is airing taxpayer-funded TV ads praising his presidency ahead of the midterms. Photo: Official White House Photo by Molly Riley / Wikimedia Commons

What happened

It started quietly. On September 19, $20 million was moved into a Customs and Border Protection account under the budget category of "commemorative events." The next day, DHS awarded a $20 million contract to a Maryland ad agency, LMD Agency, Inc., for a "national media campaign." Three days later, the first ad hit the airwaves: Trump urging Americans to "defeat communism," touting his economic record and personal resilience, while a choir in the background recited the verse "Love me" — a song by the artist JMSN, whose lawyers sent the White House a cease-and-desist letter on September 28 demanding they stop using it.

More spots followed. Then, on October 2, the Times reported that Trump himself directed the spending — and CNN published details of the full library: the "God Made Trump" film (a riff on Paul Harvey's famous "God Made a Farmer" speech, created by the Dilley Meme Team, which declares "I need somebody with arms strong enough to rustle the deep state... So God made Trump"), a spot called "King of the Jungle" that cuts between Trump, campaign rallies, lions and eagles, and a "Resilience" ad tracing his life from a young New York developer through an Oprah appearance, the Trump Tower escalator descent, the Butler assassination attempt, and his Fulton County mugshot — with a reporter calling him "the bodyguard of Western Civilization."

Latest verified facts

• $20 million allocated, $5.6M+ spent: AdImpact, which tracks TV ad spending, estimates at least $5.6 million in taxpayer dollars has already gone out the door — and the real figure may be higher, because public service announcements face different disclosure rules than campaign ads. The ads have run during college football and NFL broadcasts.
• The money's origin: it came from Trump's signature One Big Beautiful Bill Act, passed in 2025. The Washington Post reports the wider funding was intended for border-security upgrades, drug-trafficking enforcement, and commemorative events for officers killed in the line of duty. Senators Patty Murray and Chris Murphy wrote that the cash was designated for "line-of-duty death memorials, department or agency anniversaries, and commendation ceremonies."
• Trump's defense: asked about it September 30, he said the ads are "for the country," not himself: "I'm not promoting a candidate. I'm not promoting myself, because I'm not running for office. I'm promoting the country." He added: "if somebody said that that's wrong, I'll gladly pay the money."
• The legal problem: annual appropriations acts bar public money from paying for political advertising and propaganda. The administration appears to have sidestepped that by using One Big Beautiful Bill funds instead of appropriated dollars — a maneuver critics call a loophole and supporters call clever.
• Bipartisan pushback: Senate Majority Leader John Thune: "It's a great message, I like the message, but it shouldn't be paid for by taxpayer dollars." Former Bush White House ethics lawyer Richard Painter called it an "abuse of power" and "an impeachable offense." Murray and Murphy gave DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin 48 hours to explain "how this president is literally stealing their tax dollars to air campaign ads celebrating himself" — and asked whether more are coming.

Why it matters

Here's the thing: presidents have always used public money to communicate — PSA-style spots about the census, public health, the military. What's different here is the content. These aren't "get your flu shot" ads. They're campaign films — lions, eagles, messiah narration, mugshot montages — airing five weeks before a midterm election, paid for by the Department of Homeland Security, an agency whose job is border security and disaster response, not presidential image-making. Axios reported September 29 that the ads are "about to ramp up," hand-picked by Trump himself.

The timing is what makes this radioactive. Federal law draws a bright line against using public funds for political advertising precisely to stop incumbents from campaigning on the taxpayer's dime. The White House's answer — that the ads never say "vote for" anyone, so they're educational — is the kind of argument lawyers get paid a lot to make. Whether a court buys it is another question entirely.

Impact on the USA and the world

For American taxpayers, the immediate question is simple: should $20 million earmarked (in lawmakers' telling) for border security and fallen-officer memorials be buying primetime ad slots celebrating the sitting president? The Murray-Murphy letter demands answers within 48 hours on who approved the spending, whether DHS chief Mullin discussed it with Trump, and whether more ads are planned — the opening moves of what could become a full congressional investigation, and potentially a court fight over the propaganda ban.

Politically, the ads cut both ways. They energize the base that already loves this stuff — the "God Made Trump" film went viral in MAGA circles months before taxpayer money touched it. But Thune's rebuke shows the risk: when the Senate's top Republican says out loud that taxpayer dollars shouldn't fund this, the story stops being a Democratic talking point and becomes a character question. And with the midterms five weeks out, every dollar of this spending will be Exhibit A in Democratic ads of their own — the irony of which probably isn't lost on anyone.

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What happens next

Three things to watch, and none of them are going away quietly:

1. The 48-hour clock. Murray and Murphy's letter demanded answers from DHS within two days — who authorized the money, what was discussed with Trump, and whether the ad buy grows. If DHS stonewalls, expect subpoenas.

2. The courts. The propaganda ban in appropriations law has real teeth when someone tests it. Watch for a lawsuit — from a watchdog group, a rival campaign, or Congress itself — arguing the One Big Beautiful Bill money can't be laundered into campaign ads either. Our take: the administration's "it's not campaigning if we don't say vote" defense is clever, but judges have seen this movie before. The messiah-narration spot airing during NFL games five weeks before an election will be a hard sell as a public service announcement.

3. The ramp-up. Axios says more ads are coming, hand-picked by Trump. Every new spot raises the spent total toward that $20 million ceiling — and every one gives critics fresh footage. The White House is betting the ads are popular enough that nobody minds the funding. That's a bet about the American voter, and we'll find out in November whether it pays.