Attorney General submitted complaints to the U.S. Government Accountability Office and the U.S. Office of Special Counsel urging investigations into taxpayer-funded political ads featuring President , the state attorney general’s office said.
The office said the ads began airing Sept. 23, 2026, on Fox News, CNN and MSNBC and have cost U.S. taxpayers at least $5.5 million to date. The complaint says one spot is effectively a frame-by-frame replica of a partisan ad the Trump campaign ran in 2024.
The office said the ad campaign violates federal rules that bar the use of taxpayer dollars to create partisan publicity or propaganda and alleges violations of the Hatch Act. "Californians should not have to pay for President Trump’s political grandstanding," Attorney General Bonta said. The office quoted Bonta saying, "It’s also illegal."
Bonta asked the GAO to issue a legal opinion on whether the ads broke federal law; he asked the Office of Special Counsel to investigate and, if warranted, prosecute Hatch Act violations, the complaint says. The office framed the requests as steps to stop what it called a misuse of public funds and a breach of public trust.
The press release also recounted earlier actions by Bonta’s office challenging federal actions and executive decisions; the office presented the filing as a continuation of that work.
State
Rob Bonta
Attorney General · Democrat
Named 2 times in this story.
Portrait: Official portrait
Federal
Donald J. Trump
President of the United States · Republican
Named 2 times in this story.
Portrait: Daniel Torok / The White House (public domain)
Sources & methodology
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