(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) A Biden-appointed judge is seeking to block Americans from seeing White House videos that highlight Democrats’ opposition to tax cuts and other policies the Trump administration says benefit American taxpayers.
Trump administration’s videos have been characterized by Democrats and other Trump critics as political campaign ads funded by taxpayer dollars, even though the ads do not explicitly urge anyone to vote for a specific party.
On Friday, Jennifer Rochon, a district judge for the Southern District of New York, issued an emergency order requiring the Trump administration to remove the videos from social media. The specific videos are titled “$5,000 to Americans,” “Every Democrat Voted Against No Tax on Tips,” and “Cost of Socialism.”
If Republicans win the House of Representatives and the Senate in the 2026 Midterm Elections, I’m going to give all adult citizens in the United States of America, $5,000! Thank you for your attention to this matter, and I look forward to signing those checks! pic.twitter.com/YOkESiUBrc
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 3, 2026
As reported by Bloomberg News, Rochon blocked the ads for two weeks, well past the 2026 midterm elections.
The lawsuit was filed by nonprofit Common Cause, Alabama Democrat candidate Robert Hunter, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) 32BJ and its Empire State PAC against DHS, the Office of Management and Budget and the Executive Office of the President.
Democrats appear to have seized on the videos to accuse the Trump administration of using taxpayer dollars to fund campaign ads. But a Headline USA review of archived advertisements found that the Obama and Biden administrations also used taxpayer-funded ads to promote their policy agendas.
In 2023, then-President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama appeared together in a White House ad to endorse the Affordable Care Act, or so-called Obamacare, accusing “the other side” of trying to repeal it “every year since it’s existed.”
“But we’ll keep fighting to protect it,” Obama said in the ad.
In 2015, the Obama White House itself launched the “It’s On Us” campaign to end campus sexual assault, which included video advertisements featuring celebrities. The ads aired across several media outlets.
In 2010, the Obama administration spent $700,000 on cable ads touting Medicare benefits. Politico reported at the time that the ads “aimed at selling a key voting block [sic] on new provisions.”
In 2009, the Obama administration issued TV and radio ads to promote its campaign against H1N1 flu.
