Conservative PAC The Lincoln Project mocks Trump’s (crowd) size in new ad, alerts Stormy Daniels

Conservative political action committee The Lincoln Project goes for the jugular in a new attack ad (below) that ridicules Trump’s Saturday campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Titled “Shrinking,” the spot needles the president for the poor turnout (“Trump’s Tulsa Rally Attendance: 6,200, Fire Dept. Says,” per The New York Times) and engages in a steady stream of double entendre about, well, size, accompanied by damning visuals and newspaper headlines. “Hey Donald,” an announcer says in voiceover, “your campaign manager told you a million fans wanted to come to your first big rally. Turnout in Tulsa? A dud. You’ve probably heard this before, but it was smaller than we expected.” Here the ad offers a close-up of a clip of Trump gesticulating with his hands, bringing them closer together in a gesture suggestive of shrinkage. “It sure wasn’t as big as you promised,” the announcer continues. “Honestly, we’re not surprised. We’ve seen that you’re shaky, can’t keep your polls up, and it’s getting worse. You talk a big game”—here the ad serves up a clip of Trump hyping the Tulsa rally—“and can’t deliver. Sad. Weak. Low-energy. Just like your presidency. Just like you.” In case any of the double entendre went over anyone’s head, The Lincoln Project took to Twitter to alert Stormy Daniels—the porn star who scored $130,000 in hush money from Trump leading up to Election Day 2016, as we later learned (“Trump Admits To Authorizing Stormy Daniels Payoff, Denies Sexual Encounter,” per NPR in May 2018). “Just want to make sure you saw this, @StormyDaniels,” The Lincoln Project tweeted Sunday night, sharing a copy of “Shrinking.” As Ad Age has previously reported, The Lincoln Project launched in December with an op-ed in The New York Times headlined “We Are Republicans, and We Want Trump Defeated” (subhead: “The president and his enablers have replaced conservatism with an empty faith led by a bogus prophet”). The NYT bio line for the op-ed’s authors—George T. Conway III, Steve Schmidt, John Weaver and Rick Wilson—noted that they “have worked for and supported Republican campaigns.” Conway is married to Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president in the Trump White House. “I don’t know what Kellyanne did to her deranged loser of a husband, Moonface,” Trump tweeted on May 5 in the wake of the release of a previous Lincoln Project ad, “but it must have been really bad.” Trump’s public anger about that earlier anti-Trump ad, titled “Mourning in America,” helped it go viral.

Conservative PAC The Lincoln Project mocks Trump’s (crowd) size in new ad, alerts Stormy Daniels

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