Features Immigrants Flooding America Atop Trains, With Vigilantes Hunting Them Down
Just 12 hours after acknowledging that sometimes he says the “wrong thing,” Donald Trump released his first TV ad of the general election campaign, a stunning attack portraying immigrants as “terrorists and dangerous criminals.” The 30-second spot will air in four battleground states, Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Florida, and the Trump campaign will spend $4.8 million to run them for ten days starting today. It’s being labeled a “dog whistle” and being panned as a “net negative.”
The ad also attacks his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, and implies the election is “rigged” – while stating outright the system is too, and blaming the former secretary of state for that.
“In Hillary Clinton’s America the system stays rigged against Americans,” a voiceover says in the ad, below. “Syrian refugees flood in. Illegal immigrants convicted of committing crimes get to stay. Collecting Social Security benefits, skipping the line. Our border open. It’s more of the same, but worse.”
“Donald Trump’s America is secure. Terrorists and dangerous criminals: kept out. The border: secured. Our families: safe. Change that makes America safe again.”
The imagery is especially disturbing. A Photoshopped version shows what looks like a wrinkled and old and sad Hillary Clinton – even though Trump is older. Stock footage shows what we’re supposed to believe are undocumented immigrants riding atop trains flooding into America. Then, in “Trump’s America,” helicopter patrols, SUVs, and vigilantes (yes, vigilantes) roam the desert apparently ready to hunt down the “illegal immigrants.”
Clinton campaign Press Secretary Brian Fallon offered this take:
UC Irvine School of Law professor Rick Hasen says the ad offers a “enough of a dog whistle to those who believe that Democrats are stealing elections.”Â
Former Senior Advisor to President Obama Dan Pfeiffer:
Watch:
Some responses via Twitter:
Â
Image: Screenshot via YouTube