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(WASHINGTON) — The Trump administration is facing growing questions for spending millions of taxpayer dollars to air unusual TV ads promoting Trump and his administration in the weeks ahead of the midterm elections. 

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump defended the ads, saying they are “for the spirit of our country” and not a political endorsement for Republican candidates on the ballot this November or for his administration’s policies.

“You have to understand; I’m not promoting a candidate. I’m not promoting myself because I’m not running for office. I’m promoting the country,” Trump said to reporters during an event in the Oval Office. 

“Now, if somebody said that that’s wrong, I’ll gladly pay the money. But these are ads for the country,” he said.

Trump has implored Republican voters to “pretend” that he is on the ballot in the November midterm elections to boost voter turnout for GOP congressional candidates.

At a separate event Wednesday, Trump again argued that his involvement on the campaign trail is crucial for party success. 

“I hope you can believe that I’m running. They like to say, ‘Oh, nobody wants him.’ Well, everybody that has me wins,” Trump said.

The federal government has spent at least $2.5 million to air three different television ads, according to an estimate from AdImpact, an advertising agency that analyzes ad spending across television.

A total of $20 million from the Department of Homeland Security’s budget has been allocated for the effort.

Ethics watchdogs and several Congressional Democrats — as well as some Republicans — have said the ads are inappropriate. Some critics have said the ads could violate federal propaganda law.

“It’s a great message, I like the message, but it shouldn’t be paid for by taxpayer dollars,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said Monday. 

Four ads have been aired since last week. One of the ads features Trump in monochrome, slowly walking down a hallway, describing “the final battle” against “the deep state,” “the globalists,” and “the sick political class that hates our country.”

Another ad includes a montage of clips and images of Trump at events and rallies featuring onscreen text about the “largest tax cuts in history.”

The latest ad, released Wednesday, focuses on the U.S. war with Iran, now in its eighth month. Audio of Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth plays in the background as U.S. military footage, including unclassified strikes, is displayed.

The video in the ad appears to be the same as one played during the Republican midterm convention last month. And it played Wednesday before Hegseth addressed 600 service members in his State of the Force speech at the Marine Corps base at Quantico, Virginia.

The ads all say “Paid for by the U.S. Government” across the bottom of the screen as they end.

The White House has defended these spots as educational public service announcements (PSAs) and has said the ads are “very clearly not campaign ads” and instead “a reminder for Americans to love their country and know why it’s worth defending.”

On Tuesday, Democratic Sens. Patty Murray and Chris Murphy sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin accusing the department of “a shockingly corrupt misuse of taxpayer dollars.”

In the House, Democratic Reps. Jamie Raskin and George Whitesides have asked federal watchdogs to investigate the ads.

Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, and Whitesides wrote to the Government Accountability Office and U.S. Office of Special Counsel on Wednesday, describing the commercials as “desperate pre-election propaganda.”

Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr said Wednesday that the ads paid for with government funds don’t “merit any sort of FCC review.”

“It doesn’t strike me as anything at all out of the ordinary,” Carr said of the ads, during a press conference with reporters. 

Asked about allegations that the ads are “propaganda,” Carr laughed.

The White House has “explained that these are just normal-course public service announcements, PSAs, that you see all the time. I don’t think there’s anything unique or different about it,” he said.

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(WASHINGTON) — The United States knew Iran or its proxies were going to “try and do an attack, possibly on a United States asset in the [United Kingdom],” Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin said Thursday of the arrest and release of five men near a Royal Air Force base used by the U.S.

Mullin told Fox News the U.S. “had already been watching” the situation with British officials and the U.S. was “giving them a heads-up.”

His comments come after U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham said Wednesday he believes Iran “played a part” in last weekend’s incident at a Royal Air Force base in England that hosts U.S. warplanes involved in the conflict with Iran.

“They were also feeding information to us, so this was something we were paying attention to already, we just didn’t know where it was coming from,” Mullin said, adding that Iran is always a threat to the United States and its allies.

“This was a little bit more specific, so we were on heightened alert about the direct threat we had here but didn’t know where it was coming from, so when we saw it we were able to act quick,” Mullin said.

Five British nationals from London between the ages of 23 and 25 were arrested early Sunday in possession of three vans near RAF Fairford, police said, which has long been a key hub for U.S. Air Force operations in the Middle East — including in the conflict with Iran.

Police said the men were suspected of terrorism and explosives offenses, prompting speculation that the detainees were planning to target the RAF base, possibly on behalf of a foreign power.

Investigators said a search of the suspects’ vehicles found no improvised explosive devices and authorities said they were released on bail on Monday after “extensive interviews.”

On Thursday, the U.K. Counter Terrorism Policing unit announced it had arrested another man — a dual U.K./Iranian citizen — in connection with the case on suspicion of “preparation of terrorist acts.” It also said a second man had been questioned “under caution” and that it had searched two properties.

Mullin expressed frustration that the five men were released, but, “It doesn’t mean these individuals are just running loose. We — as in our partners and us — have eyes on these five individuals. We not going to let them slip through the cracks.”

Asked if he planned any response to the possible attack, President Donald Trump said Wednesday the U.S. is “studying it right now. We’re studying it. We’re studying it very hard.”

Asked about how the U.K. has responded, Trump said, “The U.K. did release a number of people that we caught wanting to blow up a base. We caught them early and I’m trying to figure out if that’s for real, if they actually did it.”

Burnham said Wednesday that his government believes Iran was involved.

“There are strong indications that Iran played a part in what happened over the weekend at RAF Fairford, but of course it remains an ongoing complex and serious police investigation, and of course we are working closely with our colleagues in the United States of America,” Burnham said.

Reacting to those accusations, Iranian Foreign Minister Aragachi said, “I can confirm Iran’s belief that releasing supposed terrorists working for foreign states really says it all. You’re barking up the wrong tree.”

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(WASHINGTON) — The Trump administration is readying its new, controversial federal school choice program that administration officials contend will “supercharge” education for millions of families nationwide, while critics worry it could undermine funding for public schools.

Officials from the Treasury and Education departments on Thursday released the rules for its Education Freedom Tax Credit, a new program that allows students and families to use taxpayer-funded scholarships for the K-12 education of their choice. The program, passed into law in 2025 as part of the Republicans’ sprawling tax and spending bill, launches on Jan. 1. 

The program works by creating incentives for individuals and organizations to donate money they would otherwise owe in taxes to non-profit charities known as Scholarship Granting Organizations (SGOs). Those SGOs would in turn use the donations to fund K-12 student scholarships for students’ education, including tuition, academic services and supplies, as well as other equipment and services relevant to their enrollment in public, private, and other school options. The SGOs’ money can be used for everything from private school tuition to books and supplies for public school students to homeschooling needs. All spending from the SGOs would be reimbursed by the federal government.

The Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service estimate the program will cost around $26 billion annually and fund as many as 2.2 million scholarships each year by 2030.

Public school advocates have expressed concern that the Education Freedom Tax Credit will steer government money away from state-funded public schools towards private schools.

The new rules are forcing skeptical Democratic governors to choose whether or not they want to opt in — choosing to walk away could mean the loss of millions of dollars in federal funding. They have until Jan. 1 to decide.

“It will be the largest budgetary shift for K-12 [education] certainly in 11 years,” Narric Rome, managing director for government relations at education nonprofit Accelerate, told ABC News.

“For some states, and for some parts of the country, this is a ‘Help is on the way,’ and for others, it’s a concern of where are their dollars going and are they going to the students that need it the most,” he said.

The Trump administration argues that if states opt-in to the program, funds can be used for both public and private school students and their educational needs. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the administration is transforming America’s education system to “meet the needs” of each student.

Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Wis., has decried the advancement of the tax credit — $1,700 for individuals or up to $3,400 for married couples filing jointly.

“It’s not for public schools,” said Moore, whose mother was a public school educator. “People will argue that they’re making an investment in education, but they’re only making an investment in these private academies. 
They’re not making investments in public education,” she argued.

“People are not going to get a $1,700, 100% tax credit, which doesn’t exist anywhere else in tax law, which means it’s a direct pull from the treasury to go into one of these corporate entities for private schools,” she argued.

Many Republican-controlled states have already opted in to the program. As 28 million children in participating states will become eligible starting next year, conservatives argue it gives “countless students” the chance to pursue the education they deserve with less bureaucracy.

So far, Democratic governors in North Carolina, Virginia, Colorado and New York have indicated that they will participate.

“Education freedom is the key to unlocking opportunity and success for our next generation of students,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon told ABC News in a statement.

“I am profoundly grateful to President Trump and our partners at Treasury for ensuring that every child has access to the education they need, not one limited by ZIP code, family income, or government‑imposed barriers,” she wrote.

Under the proposed rules and safe harbors, approximately 96% of children in participating states would be eligible to receive the scholarship funds, according to the agencies.

The program establishes a new, permanent, dollar-for-dollar credit of up to $1,700 for individuals for donations to non-profit scholarship-granting organizations (SGOs) or up to $3,400 for married couples filing jointly, according to the Treasury Department.

The regulations released on Thursday state that families’ income eligibility limit is three times the median income for the county or metro area they live in adjusted for family size. Eligibility is determined by families who live in states that have opted into the program.

There will be a 60-day comment period before final implementation of the program. Donations start Jan. 1, but states have until Feb. 15 to submit their list of SGOs.

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(WASHINGTON) — An email sent to Kennedy Center staff earlier this week by the center’s executive director says the building will “remain temporarily closed” pending an ongoing safety assessment.

In the email, sent on Wednesday and obtained by ABC News, the center’s executive director and chief operating officer, Matt Floca, gave no indication that the building will be reopening anytime soon after the President Donald Trump-aligned Kennedy Center board voted last month to close it for renovations after a federal judge’s ruling blocked Trump’s name from appearing on the outside of the building.

Floca said no one can access the building’s grand hallways without permission and a hard hat, pointing to an ongoing “emergency egress assessment” of the building’s overhanging soffits — the underside of the building’s distinctive overhanging roof.

Floca said that the ongoing assessment will “determine whether, and under what conditions, the building can safely support occupants and be evacuated,” given that certain exits would be blocked during soffit repairs.

“We currently expect the assessment to be completed within the next one to two weeks and will share an update when it is complete, or sooner if the expected timing changes,” Floca wrote in the email. “This is an assessment timeline, not a reopening date. The immediate safety determination is separate from the scope and schedule of the broader renovation program.”

Floca said the main corridors of the building — the Hall of States, Hall of Nations and Grand Foyer — remain off limits, and that entry “requires express authorization and compliance with all prescribed safety controls, including hard hats and any other required personal protective equipment.”

Wearing such safety equipment “does not, by itself, authorize entry,” Floca noted.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ordered an update on the center’s closure by Friday, and Floca is expected to provide the judge with the same information he put in his Wednesday email, which was first reported by NBC News.

Floca, in a court filing last week, cited several “documented hazards” within the building as well as corrosion on the soffits around it.

In May, Cooper issued an order blocking the planned two-year closure of the center for renovations, saying the board had not properly weighed the impact of the closure on the center’s finances and programming when it voted on the plan in March.

The Justice Department has since asked the judge to dissolve that order so planned renovations can proceed. However, Cooper has yet to rule on that motion.

Trump has appealed the judge’s order that the board cannot re-add Trump’s name to the building.

In a TIME magazine interview out Thursday, Trump said he would be willing to save the Kennedy Center, but that it’s in “terrible, terrible shape,” adding that his administration should be recognized for stepping in to renovate.

He also refused to commit to not demolishing the performing arts center without the consent of Congress.

“I’m not committing to anything,” Trump told TIME. “We’re going to see how it plays out in court.”

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(WASHINGTON) — A judge on Thursday dismissed the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool vandalism case against former Olympian David Hearn with prejudice, closing the door to re-charge him in the future.

Superior Court Judge Todd Edelman wrote in an order filed in D.C. Superior Court that the “because the government’s legitimate interest in maintaining the possibility of a future prosecution seems so marginal, and because of the extraordinary possibility that Mr. Hearn will nonetheless face a meritless, politically motivated prosecution, the Court ‘has an obligation to protect him from the uncertainty [that a dismissal without prejudice] entails, and from what, objectively, would be harassment.'”

Hearn, a former U.S. Olympic canoeist, was accused of damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in a felony indictment, but after prosecutors said they found evidence that the government’s own contractor was responsible for the damage, the Justice Department asked to drop the charge without prejudice — which would allow them to prosecute Hearn in the future for the same alleged crime, bound only by a six-year statute of limitations.

President Donald Trump blasted U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro’s move to drop the case, saying she “choked” and “folded like an umbrella,” and continued to push allegations that vandals were responsible for cutting and tearing the pool lining.

Defense attorneys, in asking that the case be dismissed with prejudice, argued that Trump’s public rejection of Pirro’s decision to drop the charges against Hearn did not “provide Mr. Hearn with meaningful finality consistent with the Constitution’s speedy trial and double jeopardy protections.”

Judge Edelman, who in August dismissed the vandalism case against Hearn and said he would wait to determine whether to grant the dismissal with prejudice, touched on “pressure” from Trump in the order.

“… due to the pressure that the President of the United States has placed on his subordinates in the Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia over the past two months, [Hearn] would be prosecuted for a crime that that same Office has determined he did not commit, and that his odds of future prosecution may be heightened by the nature and extent of his political activities.”

In the order out Thursday, Judge Edelman said dismissing without prejudice would expose Hearn to be charged with a crime that prosecutors have already stated did not occur.

“Today’s dismissal with prejudice ensures that the DOJ cannot bring this case against him again. This decision is a victory for the rule of law and for an innocent American seeking justice,” Judge Edelman said in the order.

“The Court respects the authority of the Office of the United States Attorney to decide which cases to prosecute and which to dismiss. However, in the exceptional circumstances posed by this case, the government has no right to retain the ability to compound the errors it has already made, or even to threaten to do so, at Mr. Hearn’s expense,” the order later states.

The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Hearn’s defense team said in a statement that the “dismissal with prejudice ensures that the DOJ cannot bring this case against him again. This decision is a victory for the rule of law and for an innocent American seeking justice.”

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