President Trump's political operation has thrown open the checkbook for the 2026 midterms, with Trump-aligned super PACs reserving more than $150 million in television advertising across the most competitive House and Senate races in the country, according to NPR.

The spending marks a dramatic reversal from earlier this month, when Republican strategists were openly worried that Trump's roughly $400 million war chest would sit unused through Election Day. As recently as early September, the Washington Post reported that Trump's main super PAC had not booked a single dollar in the cycle's most competitive contests, fueling GOP anxiety that the president would leave vulnerable incumbents to fend for themselves.

Where the Money Is Going

No Going Back PAC Inc., the newest of the Trump-aligned groups, has booked more than $95 million in ads, with roughly two-thirds of that total earmarked for Senate races. A second group, Safety and Affordability PAC, is concentrating on the House, having reserved airtime in 15 competitive districts. The largest Senate targets include Democratic candidates Sherrod Brown, Abdul El-Sayed, Roy Cooper, Chris Pappas and Jon Ossoff — five of the cycle's marquee battlegrounds.

"THE CAVALRY HAS ARRIVED."

MAGA Inc., Trump's primary super PAC, reported roughly $403.5 million in cash on hand as of July 31, and the president has said his political operation could ultimately spend as much as $500 million defending the GOP's House and Senate majorities. A separate FEC filing reviewed by CNBC showed roughly $21 million already spent in independent expenditures as of last weekend, a figure that has since grown with the new reservations.

Republican operatives had spent the summer warning that a repeat of past cycles — when Trump-aligned money arrived too late or went to loyalty contests rather than general-election battlegrounds — could cost the party its narrow House majority and its Senate edge. The new ad reservations, concentrated squarely in general-election swing seats rather than primaries, are being read by GOP strategists as a signal that the president's operation is finally prioritizing seat math over messaging.

Democrats, for their part, are bracing for the onslaught while noting that their own committees and allied outside groups have been outraising Republican counterparts in several of the targeted races for months. Strategists on both sides expect the ad spending arms race to accelerate through the fall as control of Congress hangs on a handful of seats.

What's next: the ad reservations run through Election Day, and both parties' campaign committees are expected to announce their own expanded fall spending plans in the coming weeks as the battle for the House and Senate majorities intensifies.