Anti-Trump Ad: Trump's Greatest Hits - Part 1

Another anti-Trump salvo has been launched in the wide-spread but ill-organized attempt to Take. Trump. Down. This one is called Trump's Greatest Hits - Part 1.


Also paid for by Kasich's SuperPAC, this ad opens fire by raising the "is Trump presidential" question. Will it work? Will this ad be the harpoon that brings the White Whale Down? Let's see.

Trump's Greatest Hits - Part 1

The ad is 47 seconds long. The soundtrack is somewhat jaunty carousel music--telling you that this is going to be a making-fun-of-Trump attack ad.  It opens with Trump calling McCain a war hero just because he got captured. It then goes to Trump saying he'd date his daughter if he weren't her father. Cut to black.

The word Presidential? appears on screen (in what appears to be the magnum sans pro font).

We then get a Trump voice-over with the translation:

An MSNBC personality repeats, aghast, "The blacks??"

"The blacks??"

We get the black screen with: Commander in Chief?

We get the Megyn Kelly quote ("blood coming out of her wherever"). We don't see Trump--we see a close-up of Kelly talking. She looks serious.

In bold: Leader of the Free World?

We see a CNN shot with a smiling Trump and the banner "Macy's Dumps Donald Trump." Trump's voice over tells us "someone is doing the raping, Don. Who's doing the raping?"

We see Trump in a rally turning his belt-buckle over and then spreading his hands asking "HOW STUPID ARE THE PEOPLE OF IOWA??"

Cut to black: To Be Continued . . .

The Meaning of It

The text is quite clear: Trump is a clown--he's not fit to be the president--commander in chief--and leader of the free world. C'mon??

Perhaps the theory is that people who have not been paying attention, when exposed to this, will freak out and abandon Donald Trump. The problem is that the 30+% that is in Trump's court likely already has been paying attention and knows about all of these. Worse, each of these gaffes was supposed to end him--but due to his secret technique of never backing down or apologizing, they have caused him to rise. Right now? He's at his all-time high right now. He hasn't consistently gone up because of name-recognition.

Trump is selling what people want--an iron-hard immigration stance, a fighting posture, a willing to be politically incorrect. These clips aren't his weak-points: they're his feature-list. The music in the ad tells you that it's not taking Trump seriously. The problem is that Trump doesn't take himself seriously. Trump owns his own downside:

• Media: Jeb Bush want’s a no-fly zone in Syria?
• Trump:  When did ISIS get airplanes?

• Media:  You can’t build a wall?
• Trump: I build things, that’s what I do – watch me!

• Media:  You’re going to deport 11 million people.  You’ll need a “deportation force“.
• Trump:  What does I.C.E do?

• Media: But you used to be a Democrat, you have donated to Democrats?
• Trump:  Yes, I live and work in New York.  NYC is all Democrats, if I need to leverage assistance for my company goals I need to work with Democrats.  It’s a business necessity; I look out for my employees and their best interests.

• Media:  But you had Hillary Clinton at your wedding?
• Trump: Yes, it was an amazing event, the best, the biggest, the most elegant, and I asked her and Bill to attend. They did.  Wouldn’t you, I mean if I invited you?

• Media:  You spend all this time talking about polls.  You seem obsessed by polls?
• Trump:  Yeah, that’s because I’m winning them.  If the polls were not good, I wouldn’t even mention them. Duh.

The link makes a good point: rather than playing the regular game (suggesting you'd date your daughter under any circumstances is creepy) Trump just alpha-dogs his way out of it. Playing his "greatest hits" is, in this case, actually playing his greatest hits.

This ad helps Trump. It doesn't hurt him. But, oh, he might sue anyway--"just for fun."

Rating: F