Donald Trump had meant to go after Hillary Clinton in his latest Instagram attack ad, but he ultimately ended up offending a different foe entirely — Russia.
The 15-second ad shows Russian President Vladimir Putin performing some sort of martial arts followed by a shot of ISIS executioner "Jihadi John" pointing a gun at the camera:
Is this what we want for a President?A video posted by Donald J. Trump (@realdonaldtrump) on Mar 16, 2016 at 9:15am PDT
"It's an open secret for us that demonizing Russia and whatever is linked to Russia is unfortunately a mandatory hallmark of America's election campaign," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, according to Vice.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Trump and Putin have had a history of exchanging admiring words about each other, with Trump calling Putin "strong" and a "powerful leader" and Putin saying the GOP frontrunner was "a very colorful character and talented." Putin, however, might have since changed his mind.
"We always sincerely regret this and wish the [U.S.] electoral process was conducted without such references to our country," Peskov said.
-
‘Chess’feature Imperial Theatre, New York City
-
Political cartoons for November 26Cartoons Wednesday's political cartoons include a peace deal for Ukraine, constitutional oaths, and the I.R.S. explained
-
Vaccine critic quietly named CDC’s No. 2 officialSpeed Read Dr. Ralph Abraham joins another prominent vaccine critic, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
-
Judge halts Trump’s DC Guard deploymentSpeed Read The Trump administration has ‘infringed upon the District’s right to govern itself,’ the judge ruled
-
Trump accuses Democrats of sedition meriting ‘death’Speed Read The president called for Democratic lawmakers to be arrested for urging the military to refuse illegal orders
-
Court strikes down Texas GOP gerrymanderSpeed Read The Texas congressional map ordered by Trump is likely an illegal racial gerrymander, the court ruled
-
Trump defends Saudi prince, shrugs off Khashoggi murderSpeed Read The president rebuked an ABC News reporter for asking Mohammed bin Salman about the death of a Washington Post journalist at the Saudi Consulate in 2018
-
Congress passes bill to force release of Epstein filesSpeed Read The Justice Department will release all files from its Jeffrey Epstein sex-trafficking investigation
-
Trump says he will sell F-35 jets to Saudi ArabiaSpeed Read The president plans to make several deals with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman this week
-
Judge blasts ‘profound’ errors in Comey caseSpeed Read ‘Government misconduct’ may necessitate dismissing the charges against the former FBI director altogether
-
Ecuador rejects push to allow US military basesSpeed Read Voters rejected a repeal of a constitutional ban on US and other foreign military bases in the country
