Republican Voters Against Trump, a political group dedicated to preventing former President Trump from regaining the presidency, released an ad on Tuesday highlighting his ongoing legal troubles, including four criminal indictments. The ad takes the form of hidden-camera footage, showing a man attempting to apply for jobs at multiple stores while disclosing that he faces 88 felonies and has been accused of sexual assault and attempting to overturn the 2020 election. These allegations mirror those at the heart of Trump’s ongoing legal battles.
The ad draws a direct correlation between Trump’s alleged unsuitability for employment at a local shopping mall and his unfitness for the presidency. It argues that if Trump is considered too much of a liability to be hired by a retail store, he is also too much of a liability to lead the United States.
The anti-Trump group behind the ad plans to run it nationally on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” and Fox News’s “Fox & Friends,” as well as digitally in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. This ad campaign coincides with Trump’s ongoing criminal trial in Manhattan, which revolves around allegations that he falsified business records related to a payment made to an adult film actress in 2016 in exchange for her silence about an alleged affair. Trump faces 34 charges in this hush money case alone and has pleaded not guilty to all of them.
Despite his attempts to delay the trial past the November election, Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, stands as the first former or current U.S. president to face a criminal trial while in office. The trial, which resumed on Tuesday, is expected to last several weeks.
The ad primarily targets swing voters rather than Trump’s ardent MAGA base, which staunchly supports him despite his legal battles. The group’s political director, Gunner Ramer, emphasizes that the ad aims to convey the message that Donald Trump is unqualified for the presidency. He poses the question: “If your local retailer won’t hire someone with Trump’s criminal record, why should the American people elect him to the nation’s highest office?”
The Trump campaign has not yet provided a comment on the ad.
