Trump Says Super PAC Will Pay for Ads Previously Funded by Taxpayers

President Donald Trump said his super PAC, MAGA Inc., will pay for television ads promoting him that had been funded with taxpayer money, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.

The shift follows backlash over the use of public funds for the spots. In a social media post on Monday, Trump said he would no longer use taxpayer money for the series and would instead use funds raised for the pro-Trump committee, Westfair Communications reported.

What changed

The ads had already run, or been planned, on the public tab. The new claim is that the super PAC will cover them. The Times named Shane Goldmacher, Theodore Schleifer and Maggie Haberman on the story. It did not, in the headline account, publish a dollar total.

A Reuters/Ipsos finding circulated the same day described Americans as deeply skeptical of taxpayer-funded election ads. That polling context helps explain why the White House moved to reassign the cost.

Why the payer matters

U.S. campaign-finance rules treat candidate committees, super PACs and official government spending differently. Ads that promote a sitting president can sit in a grey area if they look like official information but function like campaign material. Moving the bill to MAGA Inc. is an attempt to answer that criticism without pulling the ads.

Whether the PAC reimbursement covers every placement, and whether government accountants will treat the earlier outlay as repaid, is not settled in the Tuesday reporting. The confirmed fact is the president's statement that the PAC will pay.

The same news cycle

The ad dispute landed on a day already crowded with Iran-war news, including the Fairford bomber move and the Nebraska rally remark about California cities. The spending story is domestic, and it turns on who pays for the president's airtime.

Sources

The New York Times and Westfair Communications, 6 October 2026.