Thune Likes Trump's Message — Rejects Taxpayer Bill for DHS's $20M Ad Buy

President Donald J. Trump. Official White House Photo — January 2025 Official Presidential Portrait. Public domain (U.S. government work).

Senate Majority Leader John Thune called the spots a "great message," then drew the line Hoosier conservatives usually draw: the invoice should not land on taxpayers.

It's a great message, I like the message, but it shouldn't be paid for by taxpayer dollars.

That was Thune, R-S.D., on Monday, according to ABC News. The quote is not a Democratic press release. It is the Republican floor leader telling the White House the patriotism can stay and the taxpayer bill should not.

That one sentence is the story. The White House is running television spots that end with "Paid for by the U.S. Government." AdImpact, which tracks TV buys, has pegged spending so far at about $2.5 million to $2.87 million across three ads, with a fourth Iran-war spot entering the mix this week. The Department of Homeland Security has allocated $20 million for the campaign. President Donald Trump calls them public-service announcements that promote the country, not candidates. Democratic appropriators call them propaganda and filed legislation Wednesday to punish the Office of Management and Budget each time GAO flags an anti-propaganda violation.

The conservative accountability question is narrower than either side's talking points: who authorized diverting border-security and slain-officer memorial money into a national media buy — and why Customs and Border Protection's own commissioner learned about it from the news.

Where the $20 million came from

Federal spending records reviewed by The Washington Post show the pot tied to border-security upgrades, anti-trafficking work, and memorials for officers killed in the line of duty, including an "One Big Beautiful Bill" Customs and Border Protection slice for commemorative events. House Democrats on the Homeland Security minority have demanded documents by Oct. 7. CREW lodged a DHS inspector-general complaint. Reps. Jamie Raskin and George Whitesides asked GAO and the Office of Special Counsel to dig in.

ABC News and earlier reporting traced a Sept. 19 money move into a CBP "commemorative events" account and a Sept. 20 contract of $20 million to Maryland-based LMD Agency for a "National Media Campaign." The ads began airing days later. Each closes with the government disclaimer across the bottom of the screen.

The spots themselves are not subtle. One features Trump in monochrome describing a "final battle" against "the deep state," "the globalists," and "the sick political class that hates our country." Another runs tax-cut imagery. A fourth, released Wednesday, layers Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Trump audio over military footage from the Iran conflict — the same reel shown at the GOP midterm convention and before Hegseth's Quantico State of the Force remarks, ABC reported.

CBP brass found out from the news

NBC News reported Oct. 1 that CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott and senior advisers were cut out of the decision to use CBP funds and learned of the buy from news reports, according to a DHS official with direct knowledge of the process. That is not how a border agency normally spends commemorative or security money. It is how a messaging buy slides past the people whose budget line is carrying it.

Trump, defending the spots Wednesday in the Oval Office, told reporters: "I'm not promoting a candidate. I'm not promoting myself because I'm not running for office. I'm promoting the country." He added that if somebody said that was wrong, he would "gladly pay the money," per ABC. FCC Chair Brendan Carr said the spots do not "merit any sort of FCC review" and echoed the White House line that they are normal-course PSAs.

Senate Democrats are not waiting for Carr. Sen. Patty Murray and fellow appropriators introduced the Penalties for Propaganda Act on Oct. 1. Murray's office says the bill would cut OMB's budget by $20 million for each GAO-flagged anti-propaganda violation, citing Section 718 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2026, which bars appropriated funds from publicity or propaganda purposes "not heretofore authorized by Congress." Murray's release put AdImpact's aired total at least $2.9 million. The White House's reply, in a statement carried by Variety, called the spots "educational and unapologetically patriotic" reminders to love the country "at home, at our borders, and abroad."

Ads on CNN — while the White House fights the pool

AdImpact data reported by Variety and The Washington Post show the taxpayer spots also ran on CNN (10 placements) and MS NOW (38 local-market placements) even as the White House has been fighting those outlets' press-pool access. That is not a First Amendment theory problem. It is a ledger problem: the same government that pays for airtime on networks it is locking out of travel pools is asking Hoosiers to treat the buy as civic education.

Thune's line still sits in the middle. He did not denounce the patriotism. He rejected the funding source. That is the limited-government test applied to a White House that wants both the message and the blank check.

Denton, then the invoice

In Denton, Texas, on Thursday, Trump told a Peterbilt plant crowd his presidency is going great but he "can't get the word out," according to Independent and Reuters coverage of the midterm swing. The complaint landed beside a $20 million DHS media allocation already putting government-funded spots on network and cable television — including outlets the White House is simultaneously trying to freeze out of the pool.

Hoosiers who want a strong border and a government that can explain itself without raiding memorial and security line items already have Thune's verdict. The message can stay. The taxpayer invoice should not.

Reporting: ABC News, Oct. 1, 2026; The Washington Post, Oct. 1, 2026; NBC News, Oct. 1, 2026; Variety, Oct. 1, 2026; Sen. Patty Murray press release, Oct. 1, 2026; Independent/Reuters Denton coverage, Oct. 1–2, 2026.

Written by Hoosiers, for Hoosiers.