Trump now turning out fake ads
Those of us who thought we could sleep easy at night, knowing there won’t be another presidential election for the next three and a half years, were wrong.
The 2020 presidential campaign, it seems, has already begun.
Last week, President Trump fired the first salvo in what appears to be his bid for re-election.
It’s only 1282 days before election day 2020, so Mr. Trump has decided to get a head start by hitting the airwaves with campaign ads.
He simply can’t help himself.
His addiction to perpetually campaigning is a pre-existing condition, for which there’s no known cure.
Ask him anything about anything, and he’ll tell you he won his “first” presidential campaign by a landslide.
So, why not tout his 100 day “accomplishments,” with a $1.5 million campaign ad?
That ad, just like the man it’s about, stretches the truth beyond credulity.
First, within hours of it hitting the airwaves, the initial ad had to be pulled.
It seems it contained the image of Trump’s National Security Advisor, Lt. General “H.R.” McMaster.
Unfortunately, McMaster appeared in his military uniform.
That’s a clear violation of Pentagon rules, because there’s a bar against people in military uniforms appearing in campaign ads.
Trump was probably unaware of that rule. I wonder why a McMaster didn’t know about it either.
After that initial ad disappeared, a new one, minus the military garbed McMaster, replaced it.
That was only a minor problem with the ad.
The claims within it range from the hilarious to – the downright ridiculous.
The ad’s narrator claims, in his breathless baritone that, “America has never seen such success,” in Trump’s first 100 days in office.
I object.
What success?
He’s had two travel bans blocked by several federal courts; he failed to get anybody willing to pay for that blasted border wall; he’s not made good on his promise to restrict federal funding for sanctuary cities; and his plan to “repeal and replace” Obamacare, is looking more and more like Obamacare-lite.
And if, as the narrator claims, “America has never seen such success,” then why hasn’t America responded?
According to Gallup polling, Trump’s first 100 days in the White House has produced the lowest job approval numbers of any president since Gallup starting taking note of them back in 1953.
And worse, every president, except for Trump, has had much higher job approval numbers compared to their job disapproval numbers during their first three months in office.
For instance, the difference between President Obama’s job approval, and his job disapproval was plus 36 percent.
Trump’s is minus 13 percent.
Back to that ad.
When the announcer proclaims that Trump has the “Biggest tax cut plan in history,” the graphic on the screen says the “Biggest tax cut in history.”
Trump is leading, by misleading.
And let’s face it, there’s not the slightest chance that the cuts he’s proposing will survive any form of congressional approval.
Then there’s the ad’s phony claim that “companies are investing in American jobs again,” while the onscreen graphic says “FACT: 500,000+ JOBS CREATED.”
That’s not a “FACT.”
It’s really a clever bit of Trumpian sleight-of-hand.
Those numbers included January jobs created.
Mr. Trump didn’t take office until Jan. 20.
He’s taking credit for jobs that were created under President Obama.
The unvarnished “FACT” is that only 317,000 jobs have been created since Trump took over.
And to imply that job growth started on Jan. 20, after it stagnated under Obama, is a completed fib.
As of March, the economy has experienced 77 straight months of labor increases.
All but two of those months were under Obama.
What Trump campaign ad would be complete without a well-placed cheap shot?
Up pops the words “FAKE NEWS” to highlight the fact that Trump’s “tax cuts” are being disregarded by the news media.
That’s a self-defeating proposition.
If the Trump “campaign” wants to place those ads on mainstream media outlets, somebody should have realized they’d refuse to run ads that accuse them of being “FAKE NEWS.”
Self-realization isn’t Trump’s Trump card.
Edward A. Owens is a three time Emmy Award winner and 20-year veteran of television news. E-mail him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net
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