Did Donald Trump pay Hillary Clinton for this Facebook ad? The likely Democratic nominee attempted to blast the presumptive Republican nominee, but ended up just giving more airtime to his agenda, and none to her own.
One ad which came out on April 28 and is still promoted on Hillary Clinton’s Facebook page literally allows Trump to lay out his platform in his own words. The Clinton team clearly thought his statements would cause people to reject him, but as Republicans learned in the primary, this is not exactly a winning strategy.
The ad starts with footage where The Donald promises not to renege on his promises. “Everything I say I’m going to do, folks, I do,” Trump declares. Naturally, The Donald has reversed himself so many times that it’s hard to be certain exactly what he will do in office, so Clinton may actually be helping him with this ad by making his stances seem concrete.
Then the screen shifts to an image of the White House with the caption: “And here’s what he’s said he’ll do as president,” and the laundry list begins.
“I will get rid of gun-free zones on schools — my first day, it gets signed, ok?” The Donald states. “Planned Parenthood should absolutely be defunded. Get rid of Obamacare. I will build a great, great wall! You’re going to have a deportation force. A total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.”
The ad also quotes Trump saying, “When you get these terrorists, you have to take out their families,” and his promise to “absolutely” go further than waterboarding. “These are his promises. This would be his presidency,” the ad captions read, with photos of The Donald sitting in the Resolute Desk. In one final declaratory statement, the ad reads, “Stand together to stop Donald Trump.”
If all of Hillary’s ads are like this one, Trump will destroy her in a landslide. Clinton’s team laid out many of Trump’s selling points, and merely attempted to rally people to “stop” him. The entire 47 seconds gave The Donald all the exposure he could have wanted, and gave no time to the candidate it purportedly supports.
Now, many of the people who visit Hillary Clinton’s Facebook page will be Democrats. They will likely find Trump’s proposals disturbing, but even they should wonder why Clinton is giving him more time and not taking such opportunities to articulate her own platform. Indeed, the ad does not even attack each of these proposals, it merely presents them.
Clinton backers will find these positions appalling, but multiple exit polls showed that a majority of Republicans actually favored Trump’s ban on Muslim immigration, and many Americans do think we are not doing enough to fight radical Islamic terrorism. Then Clinton features Trump’s promise to build a wall — that’s his biggest selling point!
Many Americans also oppose Obamacare and think Planned Parenthood should be defunded, and a few of us think that schools might actually be safer if principals and other trusted officials could use firearms to defend them. Trump’s promise to attack the families of terrorists — which violates the Geneva Convention — does not enjoy such support, but tucked among these positions it seems less radical than it really is.
Next Page: The top comments on the ad back Trump!
This is not lost on Trump supporters. The top two Facebook comments on the ad praised The Donald. One claims that “Trump is running against ALL the Candidates + the media + establishment … and HE IS beating all of them!” Another comment chides Clinton, saying, “A country without borders isn’t a country Hillary. America first Hillary.” These comments received 4,250 “likes” and 2,533 “likes,” respectively — on Hillary Clinton’s Facebook page!
Facebook Screenshot
This is how Trump won the Republican primary — he received $2 billion in media coverage because he stated ridiculous things and led in the polls. News outlets could not restrain themselves, and he tricked them into pushing his message much farther than any Super PAC ever could. Now, he has Hillary Clinton spending money promoting his message.
When a candidate uses her entire ad to restate her opponent’s positions and does not even refute them, it plays into her opponent’s hands. No wonder people think Trump has already beaten her — if this is her strategy, he most certainly has.
See the video on the next page.
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