The term “Trump campaign” may cause 2016 flashbacks, but Donald Trump officially initiated his 2020 campaign on the same day he took the White House keys, making his once and future campaign exactly what America needed—a longer campaign season. The permanent campaign includes Trump’s ongoing series of mini-Nuremberg rallies where his fans can indulge in the warm glow of last year’s hate with a good round of “lock her up” chants. It also includes an ad that attempts to turn Trump’s 100 days of diddly plus squat into a litany of triumph and accomplishment.
However, getting someone to air that ad outside the protective Trump-incubator of Fox turns out to be a bit of a challenge. Not because it’s about Trump, but because networks have often refused to run campaign ads that contain obvious lies. And this one is loaded. CNN’s own analysis shows that Trump’s ad distorts multiple issues. It touts the Keystone Pipeline, which brings in oil from Canada, as making America more “energy independent,” makes completely unproven connections between environmental rules (that hadn’t even gone into effect) and lost jobs, and celebrates Trump’s number-free tax cut “plan” as the biggest ever.
But the Trump campaign responds to reasoned critique of the ad with exactly the same subtlety as its namesake.
The opening sentence of the announcement …
Today, Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. was stopped by the mainstream media from running a new television ad on CNN.
Yes. Assuming that the entire mainstream media is simply the advertising team at CNN. The “rebuttal” also complains that the media is trying to block the “positive message that President Trump is trying to share with the country.” Would that be the positive message of cheering for a shutdown?