New York, 12 October (H.S.): A US federal judge has dealt a legal setback to the Trump administration ahead of the country’s midterm elections, ordering it to cancel television advertisements worth millions of dollars in taxpayer funds that allegedly promote the President’s political messaging.

District Judge Jennifer L. Rochon issued a temporary restraining order on Sunday, directing the Trump administration to cancel all remaining advertisements. The order also instructed the administration to immediately halt advertisements featuring President Donald Trump.

According to a report by Axios, the ruling comes just weeks before the midterm elections scheduled for November. Several lawsuits challenging the Trump administration’s use of taxpayer money are currently pending before US courts.

The ruling came in response to a petition filed by government watchdog Common Cause, the nonprofit organisation Democracy Forward and other plaintiffs. A similar lawsuit has also been filed by the Democratic National Committee in federal court in Washington.

Following the New York court’s decision, the Trump administration defended the advertisements, arguing that they served a public-interest purpose and were intended to inform people about government welfare programmes. Previous Republican and Democratic administrations have also used taxpayer funds to promote government policies through advertising.

However, after the lawsuit was filed, Trump pledged to pay for the advertisements himself. The White House said there were no plans to reimburse the government for the millions of dollars already spent on the campaign.

The petition filed in the New York court alleged that the Trump administration had exceeded the spending authority granted by Congress and violated regulations governing government publicity and promotional activities.

Democracy Forward welcomed the court’s decision.

According to reports, the Department of Homeland Security had allocated $20 million in taxpayer funds for the advertisements. The money came from a $175 million funding package that Congress had allocated to the department as part of Trump’s agenda to implement his immigration policies.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar