A US judge on Sunday temporarily barred the Trump administration from spending taxpayers’ money on political advertising, after a lawsuit alleged that television ads glorifying President Donald Trump were propaganda meant to help Republican candidates in the November 3 midterm elections, according to Reuters.
Manhattan-based District Judge Jennifer Rochon issued the order after the watchdog group Common Cause and other plaintiffs argued that the publicly funded spots were not public service announcements.
The ads began airing in late September and drew a bipartisan backlash.
The administration had already been planning to pull the ads before the ruling, according to a separate statement it filed with the court on Saturday.
The order brings to a close several days of controversy over the commercials, which ran in the final weeks before voters go to the polls.
Trump said on Monday that he regarded the ads as a “positive promotion for our great U.S.A.” but that taxpayers would no longer foot the bill.
The White House said this week that his political action committee, MAGA PAC, would pay for the ads from now on.
It added that the PAC would not reimburse the public for those already broadcast, which end with a disclaimer saying they were paid for by the US government.
Common Cause president and chief executive Virginia Kase Solomón said: “We won’t stop until this administration is held fully accountable, and no president from any party can waste and abuse taxpayer funds for propaganda ever again.”
Alongside Common Cause, the plaintiffs included a public employee union and a candidate for the Alabama state legislature.
They had asked Rochon to halt the ads by Friday, so that they would not air during weekend programming such as football games and Saturday Night Live.
Democratic Party officials brought a separate challenge to the ads in a federal court in Washington.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the judge’s order.
