Trump campaign ad uses laundered quotes to make him look good

Former President Donald Trump’s campaign released an ad in May that uses misleading quotes and lies about his record, according to a review by the American Independent Foundation.

The ad, which was released May 24 and is titled “Starting Day One,” alters quotes to make Trump look better and uses quotes from opinion pieces that were written by former Trump administration aides but are made to look like unbiased facts.

For example, a narrator in the ad says Trump “gave us the largest tax cuts in history” while text appears on the screen that says, “Trump tax cuts helped working class the most” and cites the Hill newspaper as its source.

However, former President Ronald Reagan gave the biggest tax cuts in history with his 1981 Economic Recovery Act. Trump made that false comment 57 times throughout his presidency, according to the Washington Post Fact Checker, which gave the claim “four Pinocchios” — its highest lie rating.

The quote that Trump’s tax cuts “helped working class the most” is from an opinion piece in the Hill written by Justin Haskins, whose bio says he is the “director of the Socialism Research Center at The Heartland Institute and the co-author, with right-wing talk radio host Glenn Beck, of the forthcoming book ‘The Great Reset: Joe Biden and the Rise of 21st Century Fascism.'” 

Trump’s tax cuts did not help the working class the most. According to a report from the Congressional Research Service, the nonpartisan research arm of Congress, “Most of the tax cut went to businesses and higher income individuals who are less likely to spend the increases.”

The narrator in the ad says that Trump “gave vets the health care they deserve,” while text appears on the screen that quoting the Military Times saying Trump has been a “champion for America’s veterans community.”

However, the Military Times didn’t report that. It came from an opinion piece by Darin Selnick that was published in the Military Times. Selnick is a former adviser to Trump administration Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie and a member of the Veterans for Trump advisory board.

The ad also made multiple other false statements.

It said Trump “stood up to China and protected your job,” even though a report from Public Citizen found that Trump had awarded $425 billion in federal contracts to companies that outsourced 200,000 jobs during his four years in office.

The ad also says Trump “relentlessly protected” Second Amendment rights. However, in February 2018, after the mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, Trump said in a meeting with lawmakers, “I like taking the guns away early.”

“Take the guns first, go through due process second,” Trump said at the time.

Trump is currently the front-runner for the GOP nomination. According to the FiveThirtyEight average, Trump is in first with 54.7%, followed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis with 21.5%, and former Vice President Mike Pence in a distant third with 5.3%.

Trump’s recent indictment by a federal grand jury for alleged violations of the Espionage Act hasn’t diminished his support among Republican primary voters.

A CBS News poll taken in part after the indictment found Trump with 61% of the potential primary vote, followed far behind by DeSantis with 23%.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.