Released Monday, Donald Trump’s first TV ad is about as trollish as they come.
The ad transcript:
The politicians can pretend it’s something else, but Donald Trump calls it radical Islamic terrorism. That’s why he’s calling for a temporary shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until we can figure out what’s going on. He’ll quickly cut the head off ISIS and take their oil. And he’ll stop illegal immigration by building a wall on our Southern border that Mexico will pay for.
Concluding with his slogan, “We will make America great again,” his ad is a jam-packed Greatest Hits reel: Troll Edition. Squeezed into Trump’s first ad is every line that made the media, Republicans, Democrats, and just about everyone else squeal like a stuck hog.
Dara Lind explains at Vox:
This is basically a “greatest hits” of the Trump proposals that have drawn the biggest outcries — not just from liberals and the media but from the Republican establishment. Trump’s promise to “make Mexico pay for the wall” has been mocked by Jeb Bush; his proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States was condemned not just by Bush but by Cruz and Sen. Marco Rubio, at last month’s Republican debate.Trump’s campaign appears to believe that this is what Republican voters really love about their candidate: that he’s willing to do things in the name of protecting America that even other Republicans think go too far. This has been part of the Trump campaign from the beginning. But there were certainly other themes the campaign could have drawn on in its first ad to depict Trump as the truly independent candidate: talking about his success as a businessman, or hyping up his independence from wealthy donors or special interests. It’s certainly worth noting that the campaign gravitated to the things that people who aren’t Donald Trump fans are most likely to find offensive.
Crudely wielding his Twitter account to poke and prod at media personalities and candidates who cross him is only one of Trump’s tools. He picks fights, seriously presents the unconscionable, calls people ‘losers,’ and it all works in his favor. Trolling everyone has one advantage though — earned media. And Trump is better than the rest of the field combined in the Earned Media category.
Follow Kemberlee on Twitter @kemberleekaye
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