Trump Administration’s Democratic Blame for Shutdown Raises Legal Questions

In a deeply partisan move that has sparked ethics concerns, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s message to air travelers has become the latest flashpoint in the administration’s increasingly controversial approach to government communications during the ongoing shutdown.

As the government shutdown stretched through October, passengers at TSA security checkpoints were subjected to more than just the usual security protocols. In airports nationwide, travelers encountered a video message from Secretary Noem that explicitly blamed Democrats for the shutdown.

“It is TSA’s top priority to make sure that you have the most pleasant and efficient airport experience as possible,” Noem stated in the video. “However, Democrats in Congress refuse to fund the federal government and, because of this, many of our operations are impacted — and most of our TSA employees are working without pay.”

The overtly partisan nature of the message prompted several major airports, including Las Vegas’s Harry Reid International Airport, to refuse to play the video. Airport officials told CNN that the message “did not align with the neutral, informational nature of the public service announcements typically shown at the security checkpoints.”

Critics have accused Noem of violating the Hatch Act, a 1939 federal ethics law that prohibits federal employees from using their government positions or resources to engage in partisan political activity while on duty. The consumer rights nonprofit Public Citizen filed a formal Hatch Act complaint against Noem, alleging violations for “producing and distributing a taxpayer-funded video that blames Democrats for the ongoing government shutdown.”

Similar complaints have been lodged against the Department of Education, Housing and Urban Development, and other executive agencies over partisan messaging on their official websites related to the shutdown.

In a separate legal action supported by Public Citizen, the American Federation of Government Employees filed a lawsuit accusing the Department of Education and other agencies of violating employees’ First Amendment rights by forcing them to use “out of office” messages blaming Democrats for the shutdown. According to the suit, when employees attempted to modify these messages to be politically neutral, management overrode their changes.

“We have obviously a hyper-partisan and polarized society, but when the administration starts spending tax dollars to promote its partisanship, that’s when it crosses the line,” said Craig Holman, Public Citizen’s Capitol Hill lobbyist on ethics issues.

The administration’s approach extends beyond departmental communications. The White House website now features a clock tallying every second that “Democrats Have Shut Down the Government” and includes a highly partisan “timeline” of White House history that disparages former Democratic presidents with misleading or false information.

When asked for comment, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told Rolling Stone, “It’s an objective fact that Democrats are responsible for the government shutdown, the Trump Administration is simply sharing the truth with the American people.” The Department of Homeland Security echoed similar sentiments without addressing the specific complaint against Noem.

The partisan messaging has created a troubling precedent, with some Democratic-led states beginning to post similar notices on official websites blaming Republicans for the shutdown.

Ethics experts agree that these actions likely violate the spirit, if not the letter, of federal ethics laws, but acknowledge enforcement is unlikely. Both the Hatch Act and Title 18, which prohibits using congressionally appropriated funds to influence lawmakers, are primarily enforced by agencies within the executive branch itself.

“The real agencies in charge of enforcing the law — the Department of Justice, the attorney general’s office, the Office of Government Ethics — are all dominated by Trump loyalists,” Holman explained. “We’re not seeing the administration itself have any sort of accountability, because it runs everything.”

Richard Painter, former chief White House ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush, contrasted the current administration’s approach with previous standards: “I remember going over to the East Wing and telling Laura Bush’s staff over there we cannot, in our official capacity, endorse a charity, and that’s how strict we were.”

This partisan messaging represents just one aspect of what ethics experts describe as an unprecedented disregard for ethical norms. Painter notes that the only meaningful recourse would be congressional action, as the Constitution provides impeachment as a remedy for such matters.

“Congress isn’t doing its job,” he concluded.