Trump Has a New Focus in His Campaign Ads—and His Base Hates It

Donald Trump has decided the most important issue of the election. It’s not the economy, immigration, or foreign policy—instead, it’s demonizing transgender people.

Since President Joe Biden stepped aside, Republicans have spent $120 million slamming Democrats in anti-trans attack ads, according to AdImpact data, with much of that spending coming in the past five weeks. However, polling out Thursday from Data For Progress shows that an overwhelming majority of all voters, or 80 percent, believe that candidates should spend less time talking about transgender issues. An astonishingly high 85 percent of Republican voters agree.

Nearly 3 in 4 voters, regardless of party affiliation, including 58 percent of Republicans, agreed that “transgender people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.”

Moreover, most voters say they’d vote for a candidate who supports trans rights over one who does not. When messaging is introduced to explain two hypothetical candidates’ stances on trans issues related, 57 percent of voters chose the candidate “who says that the government should stay out of people’s private lives and that there is too much legislation targeting a small minority of the population.”

A plurality of Republicans (41 percent) and 58 percent of independent voters said they viewed Republican candidates using anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric in their campaigns as “sad and shameful,” compared to 38 percent percent of Republicans and 25 percent of independents who feel otherwise.

So why is it that Trump and his super PACs have spent $29 million over the past five weeks on TV ads attacking Kamala Harris over “transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison?”

That’s six times the amount that the Trump campaign has spent on ads discussing the economy over the same timeframe, making anti-trans ads the number one topic for TV-spending for the Republican candidate. As other October polling from Gallup shows, while there are many topics that voters see as important, transgender culture war issues are not one of them. Trump’s new focus on demonizing trans people—targeting transgender athletes and lying about gender-affirming surgeries—might just blow up in his face.

JD Vance has drawn the ire of labor activists, after crossing the picket line by publishing an opinion piece in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and defying a strike by the staff.

On Thursday, the newspaper published an article with Vance’s byline, titled “Kamala Harris’ prejudice against Catholics,” where the Republican vice presidential candidate criticized Harris for skipping the Al Smith charity dinner in New York last week, which benefits Catholic charities. Trump attended and made crass, profanity-laden remarks to a room full of Catholic priests.

The newspaper’s workers have been on a long strike since October 2022 with its owner, Block Communications. The National Labor Relations Board ruled last year that the company illegally imposed new working conditions that increased employees’ health care costs and reduced their vacation time. The employees are unionized under the NewsGuild-CWA. (The New Republic’s staff are also represented by the NewsGuild-CWA.)

“JD Vance has crossed a very obvious picket line by striking Americans,” Jon Schleuss, president of the NewsGuild-CWA, told HuffPost. “And JD Vance is a scab just like anybody else who crosses a picket line.”

Schleuss said that the picket line applies not only to journalists but also to contributors like Vance, even when they’re unpaid.

“You can deliver that message to any other publication,” Schleuss said. “Don’t go into work for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, don’t click on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, don’t share articles from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.”

The NewsGuild called out Vance on an X thread, including a graphic that spelled out SCAB in big letters over a picture of the Ohio senator.

One year ago, Vance visited the United Auto Workers picket line in Toledo, Ohio, attempting to demonstrate support for the automobile workers’ strike against General Motors, the Ford Motor Company, and Stellantis. In reality, Vance was making a blatant political move while retaining policies that hurt autoworkers.

Despite making the occasional pro-worker statement, Vance has never done anything beneficial for labor unions or worker organizations. He had fake autoworkers in the audience at a campaign stop in Michigan earlier this month. A few years ago, he helped fund a startup that imposed poor working conditions on its employees, and when they left in droves, the company replaced them with migrant workers. Working people supporting Vance, or on the fence, should take note of the vice presidential candidate’s actions instead of his rhetoric.

Elon Musk’s efforts to help Donald Trump return to the White House have ramped up with less than two weeks left until the election. On Monday, the tech CEO and world’s richest man reportedly had dinner with conservative media baron Rupert Murdoch

The New York Times, citing two anonymous sources, reports that Musk left a hotel room in Pittsburgh, where his political team has a “makeshift war room” to help Trump, to travel to New York City to meet with Murdoch and other billionaires to discuss the presidential race.

Through his company News Corporation, Murdoch owns the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal. He also owns the controlling interest in Fox News as well as several other newspapers and media outlets around the world. He has a strong reputation for pushing right-wing and conservative ideology in the media outlets he owns, and they have been unrelenting in their support for Trump, though Murdoch has been known to privately bash the Republican nominee.

During the 2024 campaign, Musk has been spending millions in donations to his America PAC to help the former president, as well as downballot Republican candidates. He’s even attempted a scheme to give away $1 million to one registered swing state voter every day until Election Day, which has already drawn a warning from the Justice Department.

Musk has also been coordinating with Trump to suppress negative stories about the former president and his running mate, JD Vance, on Musk’s social media platform X. He’s also been spreading debunked conspiracy theories as well as misinformation. His political spending has been used on nefarious tactics, exploiting Israel’s brutal war in Gaza to send opposing messages to Arab American and Jewish voters in Michigan and Pennsylvania, respectively.

Musk’s efforts and Murdoch’s history raise disturbing questions about what the two could have discussed during their Monday dinner. Were they discussing the best way to spend their money to help Trump? Were they coordinating misinformation or messaging strategies to push on X and in Murdoch’s outlets? The two are among the richest people in the world and wield a lot of influence on the right in American politics. They could very well have made a last-minute plan they hope will tip the scales in less than two weeks.

Fox News made drastic edits to Donald Trump’s recent Bronx barbershop interview, cutting many of the Republican candidate’s lies and rambling rants.

According to a CNN investigation published Thursday, Fox News cleaned up several of Trump’s weaves and most politically extreme comments during his barbershop talk in New York City over the weekend. An unedited video uploaded to Instagram shows a much less polished performance from the former president, filled with meandering tangents and outright lies that never made it to air.

The Fox News broadcast of the event cut Trump’s comments about “gang members and drug lords” in Aurora, Colorado, and his lies about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio. “They just dumped 50,000 people—32,000 migrants from another country—in Springfield, Ohio. They don’t know what to do,” said Trump, greatly exaggerating things. The city estimates somewhere between 12,000 and 15,000 immigrants live in the entire county, not all of whom are Haitian. Those who are Haitian are there through temporary protected status, which means they are in the country legally. But Trump doesn’t care about the facts.

Fox additionally drastically edited Trump’s response to an audience member in the barbershop asking about federal taxes. In the unedited video, Trump can be heard rambling for seven minutes about the Keystone pipeline, tariffs, The Wall Street Journal, and transgender sports, with the audience member generously trying to keep him on track but eventually saying, “I wasn’t able to finish my question.”

The Fox News video just shows what happens in a brief moment after Trump gets shepherded into answering about eliminating federal taxes, cutting out the rest.

Ironically, the Trump team has spent the past month threatening that they’d sue CBS News over Kamala Harris’s 60 Minutes interview if the network doesn’t release the full unedited transcript. This week, Trump’s team threatened to sue the network if it doesn’t comply, despite having little legal basis to do so.

In his critique of Harris’s CBS appearance, Trump wants to blame it on the edit. However, with this new revelation about Fox, he just looks like a hypocrite.

Donald Trump vowed Thursday to “fire” special counsel Jack Smith on his first day in office, in hopes of washing his hands of the two federal cases against him.

During an interview with conservative radio commentator Hugh Hewitt, Trump said it would be “easy” to remove Smith. “I would fire him within two seconds,” Trump said, according to The Washington Post.  

Smith has overseen two investigations into Trump, one regarding his alleged efforts to overturn the election results in 2020, and another into his alleged mishandling of classified documents.  

The special counsel filed a superseding indictment in the election interference case against Trump in September, amending some of the allegations against Trump with respect to the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on presidential immunity for “official conduct.”

Trump has been accused of illegally attempting to block votes from being counted, and to subvert election results by engaging in conspiracies to defraud the government, obstruct and impede the counting of votes on January 6, and conspire against the right to vote and have one’s vote counted.

Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, tossed out Smith’s 42 felony charges against Trump in his classified documents case, ruling that Smith had been unconstitutionally appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland. Smith has since appealed Cannon’s decision.

Earlier this week, Cannon’s name appeared on a list of potential candidates to become Trump’s attorney general. 

If Trump wins the presidential election, he’s promised to fire the person trying to hold him accountable for his alleged crimes, while also making plans to hire the one who helped him get out of trouble. 

Right-wing activist Charlie Kirk went full fake fanatic during a campaign event for Donald Trump, attacking Democrats and urging U.S. pastors to break the law.

During the event Wednesday night in Duluth, Georgia, meme-loving fascist Kirk gave the audience a taste of the wildly divisive, incendiary, pseudo-religious rhetoric he’s been trotting out on Trump’s behalf.

“The Democrat Party supports everything that God hates,” Kirk said to cheers. “The Democrat Party is espousing the death of the unborn, the mutilation of our teenage kids, open borders, the destruction of our sovereignty, the elimination of our currency status.

“I believe there is a spiritual battle happening around all of us, but don’t expect a spiritual–uh” he said, appearing to choke on the words. “A spiritual victory, if our own pastors do not engage.

“Right now, this state is a Christian state, I want to see that to continue. But we need the faithful, we need those of you that have influence over your congregation to put pressure on your pastors,” Kirk said, making a call to action.

Kirk then addressed any pastors that might be watching. “I hope you give a Sunday sermon, and you talk about how the Democrat Party believes everything that God hates,” he said.

Kirk’s conservative youth organization, Turning Point USA, has become the centerpiece of an effort by pro-Trump Christian nationalists hoping to motivate religious leaders to violate U.S. tax law by preaching the gospel of Trump. As tax-exempt entities, such as charities and churches, are strictly barred from partaking in political campaign activity, Kirk has previously offered resources to pastors seeking to “challenge the IRS.”

Last month, JD Vance attended a town hall hosted by a virulently misogynist Christian nationalist, who also urges churches to be “courageous” in supporting Trump.

Kirk has previously made similar claims about the Democratic Party, as recently as during the Monday episode of The Charlie Kirk Show.

“Kamala Harris is wired to be repulsed by the name of God. They—she mocks God. Again, everything Democrats love, God hates,” the far-right activist said.

Kirk claimed, “If you’re a Christian that votes to the Democrat Party, you are voting for things that God hates. That’s between you and God.”

The Trump campaign is explicitly working with religious extremists like Kirk to drum up support among Christian voters, who might want to notice that none of the things Kirk listed are things “God hates.” According to the Bible, the only things God doesn’t care for are haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and a man who stirs up dissension among his brothers. I’ll let you decide which presidential ticket that sounds like.

Michael Flynn admitted in a court deposition earlier this year that one of the biggest election fraud claims pushed by Donald Trump and his supporters had no evidence to back it up.

CNN reports that the QAnon devotee and former Trump national security adviser acknowledged under oath in April that he had seen no credible proof to suggest that an executive at Dominion Voting Systems fixed the 2020 election results using the company’s voting machines. This allegation was repeated and pushed by several far-right supporters of Trump in an attempt to claim the election was stolen.

The deposition was part of a lawsuit filed by former Dominion executive Eric Coomer against Flynn’s speaking tour, ReAwaken America, which has been promoting far-right conspiracies including election denial since 2021.

“Have you seen any evidence that you would consider credible, Mr. Flynn, that Eric Coomer played a role in rigging the 2020 presidential election?” Coomer’s attorneys asked Flynn during the deposition.

“I have not, no,” Flynn said. “I don’t really know.” Flynn was asked further about Dominion’s involvement in election fraud, and he claimed to have “seen a lot of evidence” and “read a lot of reports.” But he couldn’t confirm that the so-called evidence was credible.

“Credibility is in the eye of the legal system to determine,” Flynn told the lawyers.

Despite this admission, Flynn still insisted to NewsNation in May that the 2020 election was “filled with fraud,” with “clear evidence” to prove it, but didn’t provide any details when asked. In September, he spoke to Alex Jones about a Marxist plot to steal the election from Trump, and nearly two weeks ago told the audience at a Christian nationalist festival that Trump will unleash the “gates of hell” if he wins the election.

Flynn, who was forced to resign as Trump’s national security adviser after only four weeks at the job and pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI twice about conversations with Russian officials, was pardoned by Trump in the final months of his presidency. After that, he became a QAnon conspiracy evangelist and leading election denialist. His admission under oath suggests that he peddled the election lie for his own benefit, and possibly to cozy up to Trump if he returns to the White House.

Speaking at a rally on Wednesday night, Tucker Carlson likened Donald Trump to “daddy” and described him coming home angrily to give a “bad little girl” a “vigorous spanking.”

Carlson delivered the disturbing speech at a Turning Point Action rally in Duluth, Georgia, alongside his fellow MAGA acolytes Charlie Kirk, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and others, as well as Donald Trump himself. In his address, Carlson went on a manic rant encouraging his audience, whom he described as “an incredibly gentle and tolerant majority,” to fight back against those whom he sees as “parasitic, useless, violent, nasty, aggressive people,” like Kamala Harris, protesters who tore down Confederate statues, and weirdly, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink. But that was the least strange part of his speech.

Carlson then launched into a Freudian soliloquy by listing made-up scenarios of parents being too permissive, as a metaphor for how he sees America. If you allow a baby to smear poop on the walls or a “14-year-old to light a joint at the breakfast table,” or, he continued, “if you allow your hormone-addled 15-year-old daughter to slam the door of her bedroom and give you the finger, you’re going to get more of it.

“There has to be a point at which dad comes home. Yeah, that’s right. Dad comes home. And he’s pissed. Dad is pissed,” said Carlson. “He’s not vengeful. He loves his children. Disobedient as they may be, he loves them. Because they’re his children. They live in his house. But he’s very disappointed in their behavior. And he’s going to have to let them know.” The crowd of thousands went wild for his comparison, chanting “Daddy’s home” as Trump took the stage. Talk about weird. And Carlson, again, didn’t stop there.

“When dad gets home, you know what he says? ‘You’ve been a bad girl. You’ve been a bad little girl, and you’re getting a vigorous spanking right now. And no, it’s not going to hurt me more than it hurts you. No, it’s not. I’m not going to lie. It’s going to hurt you a lot more than it hurts me. And you earned this.’”

Carlson’s speech at the Turning Point rally is not out of the ordinary when it comes to the way MAGA talks about children and women as something you own and can punish. Just last month, Trump creepily promised he will be women’s “protector.” Meanwhile, in states like Missouri and Oklahoma, Republicans have supported corporal punishment in schools, as part of a long evangelical and right-wing obsession with hitting their kids.

This also isn’t the first time that the right has talked about spanking on the main stage. In 2016, Chris Christie threatened Hillary Clinton, promising to “beat her rear end,” and Senator Ted Cruz asked voters to give Clinton “a spanking.” But invoking the image of Trump as “daddy” or as a punishing God and having that message embraced by the frenetic crowd, who also cheered that “Christ is King,” is enough to make any normal person squirm.

Donald Trump made up a fictional war with France Wednesday, and then claimed to have stopped it.

During a speech in Duluth, Georgia, Trump—who previously touted himself a “wartime president” but now lies about how peaceful and safe his time in office was—was bragging about his record when he falsely claimed he really had prevented an international conflict.

“You have no idea what I did in the White House. I stopped wars … with France!” Trump said.

“France, you know the France story? They were gonna charge us, think of this, 25 percent to all Ameri—I have to protect American companies, whether we like ’em or not. Some of ’em I didn’t even like. You know Google is treating us much better, did you notice that? What happened to Google? They’re treating us much better.

“They say McDonald’s was one of the most viewed things that they’ve ever had,” Trump cheered.

While there was obviously no threat of war with France, it’s possible that Trump was referring to a trade skirmish with France from his time in office. Paris passed a digital services tax on large tech companies, including Google, Facebook, and Amazon, in 2019. In response, Trump threatened to place tariffs of up to 100 percent on French goods, such as champagne and luxury bags.

Undeterred, France ordered the tech companies to pay up in 2020. After Joe Biden entered the White House in 2021, he suspended Trump’s plan for retaliatory tariffs against France.

So the “war” Trump stopped wasn’t a war, it was a trade fight. And he didn’t even stop it. If anything, he escalated it.

But this might explain his incoherent weave from France to Google and back to his favorite subject: himself.

A former model is alleging that Donald Trump groped her in 1993 in a “twisted game” between him and Jeffrey Epstein, The Guardian reports.

Stacey Williams first met Trump in 1992 after being introduced to him by Epstein at a Christmas party. The model dated Epstein for a few months after that. The groping incident occurred in the winter or spring of 1993, when Williams and Epstein were on a walk and he suggested they stop by Trump Tower to visit the real estate mogul.

Shortly after they arrived, Williams said that Trump pulled her toward him and started groping her, putting his hands “all over my breasts,” her waist, and her buttocks. She said that she froze, feeling “deeply confused,” and believed she saw Epstein and Trump smiling at each other.

After the incident, she left Trump Tower with Epstein, and she felt that he was angry at her.

“Jeffrey and I left, and he didn’t look at me or speak to me, and I felt this seething rage around me, and when we got down to the sidewalk, he looked at me and just berated me, and said: ‘Why did you let him do that?’” Williams said on a “Survivors for Kamala” Zoom call Monday, which included actress Ashley Judd and law professor Anita Hill, among others. While Williams has shared the story in parts on social media before, she gave specific details on the call.

“He made me feel so disgusting, and I remember being so utterly confused,” Williams added, saying the incident appeared to be part of some “twisted game.”

“I felt shame and disgust and as we went our separate ways, I felt this sensation of revisiting it, while the hands were all over me. And I had this horrible pit in my stomach that it was somehow orchestrated. I felt like a piece of meat,” Williams told The Guardian in an interview. The two broke up shortly after that. Williams said she had no idea about Epstein’s pattern of sexual abuse and pedophilia.

Williams said that she later received, through her agent, a special postcard from Trump in 1993 showing an aerial view of his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, including a handwritten note in his trademark black marker. It read “Stacey—Your home away from home. Love Donald.”

Trump’s campaign denied the allegations in a statement, with his press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying, “These accusations, made by a former activist for Barack Obama and announced on a Harris campaign call two weeks before the election, are unequivocally false. It’s obvious this fake story was contrived by the Harris campaign.”

But it fits a pattern of behavior for Trump, an associate of Epstein for many years. At least 26 other women have accused the former president and convicted felon of sexual assault or misconduct. Plus, he was found to have sexually abused writer E. Jean Carroll in the mid-1990s in a civil trial last year. With the election in just a few weeks, Trump’s predatory behavior will matter to many of the voters he needs to return to the White House.