Donald Trump stole funds for fallen officers to buy vanity ads
By Maya Ellison · Reporting from Detroit ·
Donald Trump redirected $20 million meant for border security and fallen officers to fund campaign-style ads, a theft of public trust that treats the treasury as a personal piggy bank.
Donald Trump decided his own image matters more than border safety or the memory of dead police officers. He didn't just bend the rules. He raided the public coffers to buy a messiah complex. He redirected millions in taxpayer money to fund self-serving television ads, committing a brazen act of political theft. This is not "patriotism." It is the conversion of government property into a personal campaign tool.
Raiding the dead to fund a brand
The money for this vanity project did not come from a promotional budget. According to federal spending records reported by The Washington Post, the administration used funds approved for border security upgrades. They took money meant to combat drug trafficking. Most sickeningly, they used money intended for memorials for officers killed in the line of duty.
The government allocated $20 million for this effort. AdImpact estimates that at least $5.6 million has already been spent. This money was pulled from Customs and Border Protection to pay the agency LMD for ad buys.
I grew up in Flint. I know what happens when the people in charge treat essential public funds as optional. When money meant for the people vanishes, the most vulnerable pay the price. Here, the cost is measured in neglected security and insulted dead.
A messiah bought with border money
The ads themselves are not "public service announcements," despite what the White House claims. They are campaign spots. CNN reports that the blitz includes at least 13 ads. These include "God Made Trump" from the Dilley Meme Team and "King of the Jungle," which attacks Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi.
The "Military Hype" ad uses fighter jets and missile launches to frame Trump as a conqueror. In that spot, Trump says, “This regime will soon learn that no one should challenge the strength and might of the United States Armed Forces.” Other ads, like "Resilience," feature his New York real estate career and his 2023 Fulton County mugshot.
These spots run during NFL games and Sunday news shows on networks like CBS, CNN, and Fox News. Rep. Jamie Raskin has called this "felony criminal theft and conversion of government property for political campaign purposes." He is right. Using the public treasury to air a curated highlight reel of your own life is not governance. It is a grift.
The playbook of the lawless
This is not an isolated incident. It is a pattern. We saw it when the Trump administration used the Hatch Act from 2017 to 2021. They erased the line between official duty and campaigning. We saw it again during the 2020 United States presidential election. That race reminded us of their pattern of treating the public treasury as a personal piggy bank.
This is the Iran-Contra affair for the digital age. The mechanism is the same. The executive branch secretly diverts funds approved by Congress for specific purposes. They finance activities the president desires but which are legally prohibited. In the 1980s, it was arms and rebels. Today, it is commercial airtime and ego.
Sen. Patty Murray is fighting back. She introduced a bill to dock the Office of Management and Budget by $20 million. This penalty applies for every violation of laws barring federal funds for propaganda. It is a start, but it is a reactive measure. The damage is already done.
The Trump administration has treated the law as a suggestion and the treasury as a gift. They stole from the fallen and the frontline to buy a few minutes of glory on a television screen. Justice requires more than a budget cut. It requires a criminal accounting of every cent stolen from the border and the memorials. Donald Trump owes the American people a full refund and a reckoning in court.