Facing widespread backlash, President Donald Trump said late Monday that he would stop unlawfully funding political ads with taxpayer dollars and instead use money from a pro-Trump super PAC—a scheme that watchdogs said would also be illegal.

Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that he has “decided to do the Patriotic Ads, among others, and pay for them myself, and with money I raised for MAGA, Inc.” The president’s announcement came amid growing outrage over his administration’s use of more than $10 million in taxpayer funds for political propaganda, a violation of federal law.

But Brendan Fischer, director of strategic investigations at Campaign Legal Center (CLC), said Trump’s new scheme to finance the ads with super PAC cash would also run afoul of federal law.

“After charging taxpayers $10 million for thinly-veiled campaign ads, Trump now says he’ll have his super PAC pay instead. One problem: Federal law prohibits officeholders from controlling a super PAC or directing its spending,” said Fischer, who noted that his organization “has already filed a complaint” against the president for directing MAGA Inc. spending.

CLC’s complaint, filed last month, notes that Trump and his allies have openly indicated that he controls MAGA Inc., in violation of the Federal Election Campaign Act.

“President Trump’s repeated assertions that he controls a super PAC show that he has committed a clear-cut violation of campaign finance law,” said Saurav Ghosh, CLC’s director of federal campaign finance reform. “Our laws are clear: No federal officeholder or candidate is allowed to direct the money raised or spent by a super PAC. President Trump, MAGA Inc., and anyone else who breaks campaign finance laws must be held accountable to help ensure that our political system is free of corruption.”

The recent ads launched by the Trump White House just weeks ahead of the November midterms were funded by money from the Department of Homeland Security. Major networks, including CNN and MS NOW, faced intense backlash for airing the ads even though they were financed illegally.

“These campaign ads never should have run on the taxpayer’s dime to begin with. Clearly wrong. Clearly illegal,” Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) said following Trump’s announcement on Monday. “But there’s a lesson here: We can’t underestimate the difference that citizens can make in our country when they speak out and hold their leaders to account.”

A recent analysis by the Center for American Progress Action Fund found that donors to the MAGA Inc. super PAC include:

• Twenty crypto companies and executives who contributed $88.2 million;
• Four artificial intelligence (AI) and data center donors who contributed $37 million;
• Six fossil fuel companies and executives who contributed $29.75 million;
• Two health insurance and benefits companies who contributed $6 million; and
• Forty-seven nursing home companies and executives who contributed nearly $10 million.

“President Trump first ran for office promising to drain the swamp—a catchall phrase that meant rooting out corruption, conflicts of interest, and other insider dealing—but large wealthy and corporate donors to his super PAC appear to be benefiting from the official actions he is taking as president,” the analysis stated. “As Americans’ screens are flooded with misleading and fearmongering advertisements in the weeks ahead, they should ask themselves who is funding those ads and how are they benefiting.”

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