Trump campaign should've just ignored this ad on his mail-in ballot flip-flop. Oops.
Donald Trump's constant flip-flopping on the use of mail ballots prompted a little-known super PAC to poke fun at him last weekend.
The Trump campaign, showing its typical restraint, freaked all-the-way out, sending a "cease and desist" letter about the remarkably short run of a digital advertisement that had already played out across the Internet.
The 30-second video, run by super PAC Pennsylvania Values, uses clips of Trump claiming that mail-in voting is "totally corrupt" and used to alter the outcome of elections.
Score this one for PA Values, which spent less than $50,000 to publicly provoke the one-term president about his double-dealing on mail ballots.
Trump's campaign drew way more attention to the ad – and its message – than if they had just ignored it. They clearly see his inconsistency as a liability as he tries to urge his voters to use mail ballots while also attacking the practice to buttress his lies about how he lost the 2020 election.
Why else call in the lawyers? It's not like Trump's legal team has a lot of free time these days.
The ad points out Trump's messaging on mail-in ballots
If you didn't see it, I'm not surprised.
PA Values reported spending just $48,000 to produce and air the 30-second digital ad, which appeared to be timed to Trump's rally in Philadelphia last Saturday. In the scope of campaign and super PAC spending to influence the presidential election this year, that is far less than a drop in the bucket.
The ad committed the unforgivable sin of accurately quoting Trump when he spoke three times – from four years ago to four months ago – attacking mail ballots as inherently corrupt.
It opened with this banner, "MAGA Patriots listen to our president!" Then it showed Trump telling a rally crowd in Michigan in February, "Mail-in voting is totally corrupt. Get that through your head. It has to be.'
I wrote about that at the time because it was yet another example of Trump demonizing mail ballots while his campaign and the Republican National Committee had by then been trying for months to get his supporters to … use mail ballots this year.
Sometimes, Trump shares that message. Sometimes, he shreds it. Sometimes, he tries to do both.
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The PA Values ad also uses a video of Trump attacking mail ballots as "fraud" during his first debate with President Joe Biden in September 2020 and while speaking at the White House in April 2020.
The ad wraps up with the banner: "Stand strong with PRESIDENT TRUMP AGAINST MAIL IN VOTING!"
Again, the available public record shows the ad precisely quoted Trump.
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The Trump campaign on Tuesday proclaimed "possible criminal election interference" and said it "will seek a criminal investigation of" PA Values, claiming that the ad "may interfere with the right of Trump supporters to cast their ballots in Pennsylvania."
Trump campaign did great making sure more people knew of the ad
Three thoughts come to mind here.
It's well beyond brazen for Trump, awaiting criminal trial in Washington, D.C., for his alleged efforts in election interference, to suggest this quick little wisp of a digital ad is on par with that.
And nothing in the ad can reasonably be construed as interfering with the ability of voters to cast ballots. That's a ridiculous reach.
But here's what really stands out – just on the politics: This is an odd blunder by the Trump campaign.
They've created a "Streisand effect" moment, an unforced error committed by bringing far more attention to an issue in protest than it would have received by just letting it pass on by.
Trump loves to attack mail-in ballots
The PA Values ad used three brief clips, but there's so much more out there.
Trump, speaking to the right-wing group Turning Point Action on June 15, called mail ballots "treacherous" and "horrible." That was just two weeks ago.
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And it was three days before his daughter-in-law, Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump, came to suburban Philadelphia to urge voters to use mail ballots.
Trump, speaking at his rally in Philadelphia on Saturday, promised a return "to the old days" of "one-day voting with paper ballots." But he added this: “Vote early. Vote absentee. Vote mail-in. Vote in person. I don’t care how they vote. Just get out and vote.”
A small super PAC makes big waves
So Trump doesn't care how you vote. Except when he does care and complains about it.
Above all, he's opposed to anyone pointing out how he flip-flops on mail ballots.
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The only contact person listed for PA Values in campaign finance reports did not respond when I asked for comment. The super PAC has been around since 2017.
In 2018, PA Values raised more than $1.7 million, mostly from labor unions, to help U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, a Pennsylvania Democrat, win another term. In 2020, it raised $877,000 to back Democrats like Biden.
The super PAC, never a behemoth to begin with, has been slowly fading away since then.
But they went out with a bang, triggering Trump and his campaign, using what appears to be the last of its resources to highlight his hypocrisy, prompting him to amplify that to a larger audience.
Follow USA TODAY elections columnist Chris Brennan on X, formerly known as Twitter: @ByChrisBrennan
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump campaign doesn't want you to see this ad on mail ballots
