On Senate Floor, Senator Hassan Pushes Resolution Slamming Trump’s Taxpayer-Funded Political Ads

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan (D-NH) today took to the Senate Floor to pass a Senate Resolution that pushes for accountability over President Trump's new political ad campaign promoting himself paid for with taxpayer dollars. The ads appear to clearly violate federal laws that prohibit the use of taxpayer dollars to promote a political party or candidate. New reporting today revealed that President Trump personally directed the creation of the ads, and that the funding comes from the Department of Homeland Security. The latest reporting suggests that the ad campaign could cost $20 million in taxpayer funding.

Senator Hassan today introduced a Senate Resolution stating what members on both sides of the aisle have already publicly said - that these ads should not be paid for with taxpayer dollars. Despite that, Senate Republicans blocked consideration of the measure. Senator Hassan slammed the effort to block the resolution and urged the White House to reverse course.

Click here to see video of Senator Hassan's remarks on the floor, or see key quotes below:

• "On televisions across the country right now, people are being inundated with all kinds of political ads, but the ending of these ads is unlike any other. If someone's watching this ad, right at the end, at the bottom of the screen, you find out that this publicity stunt isn't paid for by President Trump or one of his PAC's or even one of his billionaire friends. No. This ad is paid for by you, the American taxpayer."

• "I've introduced a resolution that's quite simple. It just tells the President that he is wrong, that these ads need to be pulled down and that they should not be paid for with taxpayer dollars."

• "The American people want their tax dollars to go towards helping them and keeping them safe, not propaganda campaigns for a President. He's welcome to run whatever ads he wants with his own riches, but with taxpayer dollars, money that people have worked hard to earn, he needs to follow the law."

• "One of the ads is literally one of the President's campaign ads from 2024. It's clearly a campaign message, but he's making all of us pay for it at a time when he has sent grocery costs, rent costs, and gas costs soaring. Any American who watches this ad can see that it's not a PSA, like the White House claims. What's the public service message here?"

• "If we're going to talk about which side of the aisle is supporting communism and socialism, it is this President who had the United States government take a share, an interest, in a privately held company. It is this President who welcomed the leader of the largest communist party in the world to the White House, fawning over him...while banning the free press from the White House and welcoming the communist press in."

• "My colleagues on the other side of the aisle should stand together in opposing this clearly unlawful and wrong use of taxpayer money. This is an incredibly wealthy President with a huge war chest that can afford to fund whatever political messages he wants. It should not come at the cost of hard-earned American tax dollars. So, despite the fact that we can't pass this resolution today, I hope that the administration listens to the bipartisan pushback on these ads and reverses course immediately."

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