Trump's latest fear-mongering ad takes dirty Willie Horton-style politics to a whole new level
President Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric has reached a new level.
The Trump campaign, in an attempt to vouch for Republicans, rolled out what CNN calls "the most racially charged national political ad in 30 years" on Wednesday. It features a twice-deported Mexican man who returned to America and killed two police officers, and menacingly claims, "Democrats let him into our country."
Article continues belowThe 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.
The ad immediately elicited comparisons to former President George H.W. Bush's "Willie Horton" ad. The 1988 ad connected Bush's Democratic competitor Michael Dukakis to Horton, a black man who raped a white woman while out of jail on a furlough program Dukakis had supported. And while it may be seen as racist today, "it was regarded at the time as devastating to the Dukakis campaign," CNN points out.
The ad also calls back to Trump's infamous campaign debut, when he said Mexican immigrants were "bringing crime, they're rapists." So it's no surprise that Trump is making the same argument once again, conservative commentator Scott Jennings told CNN's Chris Cuomo.
Dozens of Twitter users, media hosts, and retiring Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) have decried the ad. It's still pinned to the top of Trump's Twitter feed.
