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{"id":27319,"date":"2026-09-29T01:34:41","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T01:34:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/taxpayer-funded-ads-are-the-latest-trump-headache-for-beleaguered-gop-senators\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T01:34:41","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T01:34:41","slug":"taxpayer-funded-ads-are-the-latest-trump-headache-for-beleaguered-gop-senators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/taxpayer-funded-ads-are-the-latest-trump-headache-for-beleaguered-gop-senators\/","title":{"rendered":"Taxpayer-funded ads are the latest Trump headache for beleaguered GOP senators"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Senate Republicans want to spend this week insulating themselves from a deteriorating political environment before getting back on the campaign trail. Instead, they\u2019re fending off some final curveballs from President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p>White House decisions to use <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/09\/24\/trump-administration-midterm-tv-ads-01091499\" target=\"_blank\">air campaign-style ads<\/a> with taxpayer funds while separately rescinding about a billion dollars in congressionally approved spending are the latest pre-midterm frustrations for GOP senators \u2014 who spent much of Monday fielding off-message questions about the president\u2019s latest actions.<\/p>\n<p>The distractions come as Republicans grow increasingly anxious that the economic fallout from the Iran war could doom their majority in November. They decided to spend a few extra days in Washington to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/09\/25\/senate-democrats-data-center-vote-01092898\" target=\"_blank\">take affordability-related votes<\/a> they hope their vulnerable members can use back home.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, they\u2019re being quizzed on the propriety of federally funded ads promoting Trump, which ran during weekend football games and other programming.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI will just tell you that right now in Utah, they\u2019re worried about affordability, and they don\u2019t want to be worried about how their taxpayer dollars are being spent,\u201d Sen. <a href=\"https:\/\/directory.politicopro.com\/member\/278770\" data-person-id=\"278770\">John Curtis<\/a> (R-Utah) said of how his constituents could regard the ads.<\/p>\n<p>The ads and the spending cuts created twin \u2014 though not necessarily overlapping \u2014 circles of pushback inside the Senate GOP.<\/p>\n<p>Appropriators, in particular, fumed over White House budget director Russ Vought\u2019s Friday night announcement of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/09\/25\/trump-declares-1b-canceled-in-pocket-rescission-in-another-affront-to-congress-funding-power-01093960\" target=\"_blank\">fresh \u201cpocket rescissions\u201d<\/a> that Congress cannot vote to overrule. A budget office spokesperson didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment Monday night.<\/p>\n<p>Senate Appropriations Chair <a href=\"https:\/\/directory.politicopro.com\/member\/51168\" data-person-id=\"51168\">Susan Collins<\/a> \u2014 who is now campaigning for reelection in part on her hefty influence over federal spending \u2014 called Trump\u2019s action \u201cillegal\u201d and told reporters Monday that she and allies would work to ban similar steps in the future. Sen. <a href=\"https:\/\/directory.politicopro.com\/member\/221844\" data-person-id=\"221844\">Mike Rounds<\/a> (R-S.D.) warned the latest rescission would \u201cmake it very hard\u201d to get government funding deals in the future.<\/p>\n<p>The bigger reaction among Senate Republicans Monday was to the taxpayer-funded ad campaign. One spot is virtually identical to a 2024 Trump campaign spot; another includes images of the president and a caption including that \u201cAmerica will never be a communist country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Trump administration has not disclosed the amount being spent on the ads or where the funding is being drawn from but is defending them as \u201cpublic service announcements.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A White House official granted anonymity to speak candidly noted that Trump is not on the ballot in November. A White House spokesperson said the ads are about \u201creminding Americans to love their country and understand what makes it worth defending\u201d \u2014 not midterm politics.<\/p>\n<p>Still, Republicans from Senate Majority Leader <a href=\"https:\/\/directory.politicopro.com\/member\/51242\" data-person-id=\"51242\">John Thune<\/a> on down distanced themselves from the ads.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a great message. I like the message. But it shouldn\u2019t be paid for with taxpayer dollars,\u201d Thune <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/live-updates\/2026\/09\/28\/congress\/john-thune-knocks-trump-ads-01095763\" target=\"_blank\">told reporters<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Other Republican senators tried to toe a similar line \u2014 disagreeing with the decision without directly criticizing Trump. Rounds, who is up for reelection, said that \u201cit\u2019s not something that I would have done.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sen. <a href=\"https:\/\/directory.politicopro.com\/member\/260075\" data-person-id=\"260075\">John Kennedy<\/a> (R-La.) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/videos\/gop-sen-john-kennedy-slams-234112781.html\" target=\"_blank\">gave a similar response over the weekend<\/a>, saying that no public official \u201cshould spend public money on private ads for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Asked if using public funds for the ads was appropriate, Sen. <a href=\"https:\/\/directory.politicopro.com\/member\/51170\" data-person-id=\"51170\">John Cornyn<\/a> (R-Texas) said, \u201cNo, it\u2019s not even a close question.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The bristling inside the GOP comes after some of them previously questioned Department of Homeland Security-funded ads that heavily featured then-Secretary Kristi Noem. GOP senators privately viewed the ads as an effort by Noem to promote herself, and they believe they factored into Trump\u2019s decision to move her into another job.<\/p>\n<p>The latest ads put Republicans in an even tighter spot given the president\u2019s direct involvement and the political winds blowing against them \u2014 especially as they <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/live-updates\/2026\/09\/28\/congress\/senate-vote-member-stock-trading-01095064\" target=\"_blank\">prepare for votes<\/a> later this week aimed at convincing voters they are in touch with their concerns.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI hate them,\u201d said Sen. <a href=\"https:\/\/directory.politicopro.com\/member\/192907\" data-person-id=\"192907\">Thom Tillis<\/a> (R-N.C.), who announced last year that he would retire after policy splits with Trump. \u201cAgain, these are taxpayer dollars. People say it wasn&#8217;t that much money. Well, you go talk to people that are struggling and figure out whether or not they think it was that much money.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Yet other GOP senators \u2014 including members of leadership such as Sens. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia and James Lankford of Oklahoma, as well as Sen. <a href=\"https:\/\/directory.politicopro.com\/member\/198810\" data-person-id=\"198810\">Steve Daines<\/a> of Montana \u2014 gave a tried-and-true response to the Trump controversy du jour.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHere\u2019s the honest truth \u2026 I didn\u2019t see it,\u201d Daines told reporters, laughing as explained he was watching his grandkids over the weekend. \u201cI really didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><i>Chris Marquette and Mia McCarthy contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Senate Republicans want to spend this week insulating themselves from a deteriorating political environment before getting back on the campaign trail. Instead, they\u2019re fending off some final curveballs from President Donald Trump. White House decisions to use air campaign-style ads with taxpayer funds while separately rescinding about a billion dollars in congressionally approved spending are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27319\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}