// ARS TECHNICA — LINUX & OPEN SOURCE
Trump commercial railing against his enemies kept airing after court blocked it
US attorney apologized to court, said government has stopped running Trump ads.
Trump commercials paid for by the US government continued airing on TV the day after a judge blocked the ads because they likely violate a US law against government-funded publicity or propaganda.
In the most widely aired commercial, Trump railed against his perceived enemies and said he would “liberate America from these villains once and for all.” The campaign also included a commercial praising Trump’s record as president, another in which Trump calls the US the “most exceptional nation ever to exist in human history,” and commercials related to the Iran war and the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
US District Judge Jennifer Rochon issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) blocking the ads on Sunday, October 11, which took effect at 6:45 pm that night. The order said the government must cancel the ads, “including those placements for the evening of October 11, 2026.”
The Trump administration had told the court on October 10 that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) advertising purchases were set to expire on October 11 and would not be renewed. Despite that, the ads continued airing the night of October 11 and on part of October 12. This was also a week after Trump’s October 5 statement that he would start paying for the ads “myself, and with money I raised for MAGA, Inc.”
A US attorney yesterday filed a status report saying that the government is now complying with the order and issued an apology. “As Your Honor is aware, the Court emailed the TRO to the parties yesterday at 6:46 p.m.,” US Attorney Jamie McDonald wrote in a filing. “Counsel for the Government emailed the TRO to agency counsel at 7:58 p.m. Agency counsel did not become aware of Government counsel’s email until this morning. The undersigned apologizes to the Court and the plaintiffs.”
The ads aired as part of a $20 million purchase order that US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) made on September 20 with LMD Agency, an ad firm. The DHS told the court that the ad placements through October 11 cost $19 million.
In the previous Trump administration filing opposing the motion for a temporary restraining order, one of the government’s arguments was that a court order was unnecessary because the ads would not run past October 11. It said:
DHS issued a purchase order to obtain media services from a vendor in support of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for placing national media buys. The vendor has currently purchased media buys under the terms of the purchase order through tomorrow, October 11, 2026. DHS has directed the vendor not to make any additional media buys past October 11, and DHS has no plans to make any additional media buys under the purchase order or otherwise use appropriated funds on any similar contracts for the creation or distribution of the media that is the subject of this lawsuit. Accordingly, the alleged offending conduct will end tomorrow, and Plaintiffs therefore will suffer no harm, let alone irreparable harm, absent an injunction.
The Washington Post reported yesterday that the ads kept running after the restraining order took effect. Nonprofit advocacy group Common Cause and other groups that sued the government submitted a filing later in the day notifying the court of the government’s noncompliance.