The Lincoln Project has vaulted into the center of this presidential election through a barrage of the best campaign ads in the 2020 race. “This is how it starts,” an ominous male voice intones as one spot opens with a black and white picture of the White House. The voice warns of a President out of control, a rogue attorney general and “shadowy men” who “snatch so-called enemies of the state” off the street.
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Images of a frightening (and frightened) looking President Donald Trump fade into images of federal troops – “faceless enforcers” – arresting or beating peaceful demonstrators. “This is how freedom dies,” says the narrator, encouraging Americans to register to vote in November. “Because if we don’t, we know how it ends.” The closing image fades to a phalanx of police in riot gear.
Another ad features a gentler-sounding female narrator. “Something’s wrong with Donald Trump,” she says. “He's shaky, weak. Trouble speaking. Trouble walking.” Footage shows Trump using two hands to drink water during a speech and shuffling down a ramp after a speech at West Point. “The most powerful office in the world needs more than a weak, shaky, unfit president,” notes the narrator. “Trump doesn’t have the strength to lead. Nor the character to admit it.”
Lincoln Project co-founder Reed Galen says these ads are meant for an audience of one: Trump himself. And they seem to have been successful at getting inside Trump’s head, with the President taking pains to make a show of his ability to drink water with one hand at his Tulsa rally.
But will these ads get inside the heads of the voters enough to affect the election?
The Lincoln Project ads are unusual. They haven’t been made by Democrats but by supporters of Trump’s own party.