US: Judge Halts Taxpayer-Funded TV Ads Featuring Trump
Is this a win for voters or judicial overreach against executive speech?
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Above: Donald Trump on a television at Trump Tower in New York, U.S., on June 16, 2015. Image credit: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg/Getty Images
The Facts
- A federal judge in New York ordered the Trump administration Sunday to immediately halt taxpayer-funded television ads featuring President Donald Trump. The order took effect at 6:45 p.m. and lasts 14 days, unless the court extends it.
- The ruling bars the Department of Homeland Security from spending what remains of the $20 million allocated for the campaign. About $19 million had already been spent on the ads, which carried the disclosure: "Paid for by the U.S. Government."
- U.S. District Judge Jennifer Rochon found the challengers likely to succeed on the merits and said they faced irreparable harm without an injunction. She ordered the cancellation of all remaining broadcasts, including Sunday evening spots.
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The Spin
Anti-Trump narrative
Tax dollars belong to the public, not to a political image campaign built around one man's slogans. Using federal agency budgets to push messaging that boosts a president's standing before an election corrupts the whole idea of appropriations. Stopping that spending is a win for voters and a reminder that no office sits above the law.
Pro-Trump narrative
Reminding Americans to love their country is not electioneering, and a single district judge should not get to decide which patriotic messages the government may air. The offer to cover the cost personally shows good faith, yet the gavel came down anyway. Blocking executive branch speech on a partisan whim is judicial overreach, nothing less.
