Midterms: Democrats sue Trump administration over TV ads

The Democrats have filed a lawsuit against US President Donald Trump over allegations of financing election advertising with taxpayer money. The US government is violating the ban on using budget funds for “advertising or propaganda purposes,” according to the lawsuit filed by the Democratic National Committee.

Trump is accused of personally ordering the action. The US Budget Office is accused of having shifted $20 million for this purpose. According to media monitoring company Ad Impact, the commercials have already cost taxpayers more than twelve million dollars, around 10.7 million euros.

Democrats also argue that the Trump administration's "illegal use of taxpayer dollars for election advertising" deprives them of a fair election campaign and puts them at a disadvantage. This refers to the election campaign for the congressional midterm elections on November 3rd. They are calling on the court in Washington to prohibit the US government from using budget funds to create and broadcast advertising clips.

Fight against communism as an election campaign theme

A few weeks before the important midterm elections in the USA, government-financed videos with messages from Trump are currently causing a stir. The videos contain, among other things, an anti-communism message and were broadcast on several TV channels. One resembles a Trump election commercial from 2024. Trump speaks of the “final battle” in the black and white video. “Communists, Marxists and fascists will be driven out.”

In another, a choir in the background sings the words "Love me" over and over again. Trump's voice can be heard: "America will never be a communist country." The video says: “Funded by the US government.”

The US President and the Republicans who belong to the Trump camp have made it one of their central campaign strategies to warn of an alleged communist threat to the US. In this context, they repeatedly refer to left-wing representatives of the Democrats as “communists”.

Republicans also criticize the funding

Democrats have been criticizing the videos for a long time - and there was also criticism from Republicans. Tax money cannot be used for election advertising in the USA. After allegations of financing election advertising with taxpayers' money, Trump recently announced that he would bear the costs of the controversial video messages himself in the future. However, it remained unclear whether he would also want to cover the costs already paid with tax money.

In their lawsuit, the Democrats also accuse Trump of continuing to broadcast clips with the caption “financed by the US government” even after he announced that he would cover the costs. Trump claims it's not about advertising for himself, but about advertising for the USA.