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LIVING IN TRUMP’S HEAD TO KEEP HIM FROM ANOTHER WHITE HOUSE TERM
October 22, 2022 — As one element of our strategic approach to today’s political landscape, The Lincoln Project prides ourselves on getting into Donald Trump’s head and staying there. Since the beginning, our “Audience of One” strategy has taken Trump off-mission and forced him to spend precious time worrying about what we were doing rather than competing against Joe Biden.
No other group has ever managed to duplicate this success. For the first time in history, a SuperPAC forced a campaign to fire its campaign manager in mid-election. Understanding Trump’s psychology and motivations allowed us to craft an ad that led to the inevitable firing of campaign manager Brad Parscale. Though Donald is one of the world’s most successful grifters we knew he hated the idea of anyone on staff making more off of him, and crafted a campaign smart bomb that exploded in his campaign. It led to weeks of chaos, division and drift in Trump world, and gave the Biden campaign time and space to prepare for the Fall.
Two years ago we decided to expand this approach to Trump’s closest advisors – and family members – daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared. We hit them where it hurt; Ivanka and Jared once aspired to being pillars of New York high society. We used Jared’s role in Trump’s deadly and disastrous COVID policies as the vector to a late-stage strategy to disrupt the Trump campaign at a critical moment.
We placed giant billboards in Times Square portraying the two exactly as they are – terrible people who don’t care about anyone other than themselves. The ad showcased Ivanka posing with the staggering number of covid deaths in New York City and the United States. It also had a quote from Jared that said, “[New Yorkers] are going to suffer, and that’s their problem.”
For all their posturing, the tough-talking Trump orbit is full of fragile snowflakes who threatened to sue us for defamation. We didn’t back down and dared them to sue us. (P.S. they never did.)
This strategic approach wasn’t politics as usual; it was the politics of the future. We once again disrupted the Trump campaign, took crucial bandwidth and attention from their message operations, and enraged the President and his inner circle. The resulting firestorm brought national and international media attention to their mismanagement of the pandemic, their cruelty toward blue states, and their pathetic need for status.
The billboards were widely praised for their honesty and for giving New Yorkers a lift during a difficult stage of the pandemic. State Senator Brad Hoylman said, “Just from a visceral standpoint, when I see that billboard, I feel like it’s speaking for me and millions of New Yorkers.”
We continue this strategy today, and Trump continues to respond. This summer he threatened to sue us – (and Fox News!) – again after we said Trump was ripping off his supporters and treating them like suckers. The ad cut right to the heart of Trump’s operation and made him nervous. He knows it’s all a con and he needs to keep up appearances so he can continue to make money. And we’re still waiting on the lawsuit.
But that’s what Trump does, he threatens and bullies people into submission. And he’s still trying to bully America into agreeing that the election was stolen by pushing 291 election deniers on the ballot across the country. He’s using language to stir up his followers into a violent mob once again.
In the end our strategy works because Trump can’t quit us. Maybe it’s because we are the only ones who consistently – and constantly – tell him the truth.
On November 8th, 2022 the 2024 Presidential election campaign begins. Donald Trump is certain to run, and we’ll be there to do what we do best; live rent free in his head, disrupt and distract Trump and his campaign, and fight to keep him from another term in the White House.
The Lincoln Project is a leading pro-democracy organization in the United States — dedicated to the preservation, protection, and defense of democracy.
To learn more about The Lincoln Project, go to lincolnproject.us.
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