The Latest: Trump doesn’t commit to repaying federal funds already spent on controversial ads

A day after President Donald Trump said he would start paying for controversial taxpayer-funded ads with a campaign account, there’s no sign he plans to refund the millions of federal dollars already spent on them. A White House official insisting on anonymity said Trump's promises don't mean there's any reimbursement coming for the $12 million worth of ads that have already aired as part of a $20 million campaign using money Congress appropriated for the Department of Homeland Security .

The White House also sought to clarify Trump’s comments that the U.S. should let Iran attack Los Angeles and San Diego , saying that the president wants to protect the US from nuclear war. Democrats and military veterans say no president should suggest that it's OK to consider Americans collateral damage.

And Trump on Tuesday said he has a call scheduled with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss a possible case of plague at a Siberian research institute. Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said he would be talking with Putin about the case “very soon.”

The Latest:

Democrat Kamala Harris entered the final stretch of the 2024 campaign with significantly more money than Trump only to lose every critical swing state and the White House. Elon Musk’s $25 million didn’t lift his preferred candidate to a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat. And Tom Steyer didn’t advance in the California governor’s race despite spending $216 million of his own money.

The $1 billion that Republicans have amassed compares with roughly $579 million held by a comparable collection of major Democratic groups.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said his party is facing an “obscene” amount of spending that could swamp them in the midterms.

“We’re never going to have as much money as them,” Schumer told the AP. “I sum up the election in this sentence: Can a massive Republican advantage in money beat a massive Democratic advantage in better candidates and political climate? I bet it can’t.”

The challenge is acute in places like Texas, where Trump will travel on Wednesday for the second time in a week to stump for Republican Ken Paxton’s Senate campaign. The state hasn’t elected a Democratic senator since 1988, yet MAGA Inc. has spent more than $22 million in the past month, according to the ad tracking firm AdImpact.

Texas PAC, which is aligned with Senate Majority Leader John Thune , has spent more than $83 million on advertising in the past month, an extraordinary amount to protect what’s normally a safe Republican seat. But while Texas PAC was charged $450,000 to air a single spot in the Austin market, Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico’s campaign paid $50,000 for a spot during the same game in the same market, according to AdImpact.

Republicans are increasingly anxious that the $1 billion at their disposal may not be enough to fend off sweeping midterm election losses as the party reckons with Trump’s unpopularity, persistent cost concerns and the fallout from the war in Iran .

The cash advantage, spread out across a half-dozen groups, is driven largely by the Trump-aligned MAGA Inc., which had nearly $416 million on hand at the end of August and increased its spending on critical races in September.

But that money may have come too late, forcing the president’s group to pay much higher rates because of the shrinking availability of air time. Four Republican Senate campaign officials said groups that reserved advertising time last spring paid much lower rates than MAGA Inc. and its affiliated groups. Now, the Trump-connected organizations are sometimes paying more than five times what they would have spent if they had acted earlier.

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Relatives of some soldiers killed in the Iran war joined dozens of Gold Star families from prior U.S. conflicts Tuesday at the White House, where Trump offered words of comfort and candles were lit for the fallen service members, according to one of the widows who attended.

Not all families of the six soldiers killed March 1 in the deadliest attack of the Iran war opted to attend. Troops who survived the attack have raised questions about why they were stationed at a site that didn’t have sufficient air protection and was viewed as a likely target.

Michelle Tietjens and other relatives have said they are angry the Army still hasn’t answered questions over whether enough was done to protect their loved ones. But Tietjens and her teenage son traveled from Bellevue, Nebraska, to attend the event to honor her husband, Master Sgt. Noah Tietjens, who was killed along with five other Army Reserve soldiers by an Iranian drone strike in Kuwait.

Tietjens said the reception “didn’t change my feelings on them giving me answers,” and added that she spoke with someone at the White House who offered to try to help.

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Trump on Tuesday said he has a call scheduled with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss a possible case of plague at a Siberian research institute.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said he would be talking with Putin about the case “very soon.” Health authorities are investigating after the death of an employee at an anti-plague institute, which authorities attributed to pneumonia with an unknown cause.

Asked what the U.S. intelligence community was saying about the case, Trump said the U.S. is in “very deep discussions” on the topic. “We’ll be able to report about it, probably tomorrow,” Trump said.

The World Health Organization on Tuesday said the case presents a “very low” risk outside Russia. The United Nations agency said it was in contact with Russian authorities following reports of the death last week of a woman who worked at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East.

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The White House clarified Donald Trump’s comments at a Monday night rally , explaining that the president was not insinuating that he wanted Iran to attack U.S. cities but instead wanted to prevent Tehran from having that capability.

White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said on social media Tuesday that the president’s comments have been misunderstood and misrepresented in a “media freakout” that is “not rooted in reality.”

Trump was discussing the Iran war and the resulting high gas prices that have become a midterm liability for Republicans during his remarks in Nebraska when he mentioned the possibility of an Iranian attack on U.S. soil.

“It’s a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe,” he said of the war and its economic fallout. “They can take out a city. Let ’em take out Los Angeles, let ’em take out San Diego. This is a very small price to pay.”

The commentary was delivered in the familiar meandering style that he uses at campaign rallies, when he speaks for extended periods — often an hour or more — and is only occasionally following prepared remarks on a teleprompter.

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A day after President Donald Trump said he would start paying for controversial taxpayer-funded ads with a campaign account, there’s no sign he plans to refund the millions of federal dollars already spent on them.

Nearly $12 million worth of ads have already aired, according to AdImpact, as part of the $20 million the Department of Homeland Security tapped for the contract .

But Trump’s plan to pay for the ads with MAGA Inc. doesn’t mean there’s any reimbursement coming, said a White House official who was not authorized to talk publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Trump said the ads were “really good” and “promotion for the country, done by many presidents before.” Asked whether he’d repay the funds already spent, he said, “We’ll decide.”

The ads, which began airing in late September, glorify Trump and echo his political messaging going into the midterms. Republicans and Democrats alike have said the ads aren’t an appropriate use of U.S. government money.

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