Does Donald Trump’s beautiful wife make you want to vote against him? Would it help if she were completely naked?
This year’s Republican primary contest has seen some pretty weird stuff, but the latest anti-Donald Trump ad campaign is in a league of its own.
And not in a good way.
The anti-Trump GOP super PAC Make America Awesome does some excellent work, generally affecting a “happy warrior” ethos of relishing the political fight without taking any of it too seriously. But the group’s latest ad campaign is a swing and a miss.
Make America Awesome produced a series of Facebook ads targeting Mormon voters ahead of Tuesday’s Utah Republican presidential caucus. (The state is about 60 percent Mormon.)
The ads assume Mormons will be repulsed by Trump’s pro-choice record, his unelectability — and his naked wife.
Mrs. Trump is the lovely Melania, who has had a pretty decent modeling career. In 2000, she posed nude for British GQ magazine. The Make America Awesome ad reproduces the nude photo with the text “Meet Melania Trump, your next first lady. Or you could support Ted Cruz on Tuesday.”
What’s wrong with this? Let us count the ways.
A dirty move against a candidate’s family member: Spouses are noncombatants unless they’re wearing a uniform.
There are times when family members of candidates grab the mic and hit the campaign trail for their husbands or wives. And, of course, there are occasions when a candidate’s spouse talks policy.
But the idea that a 16-year-old nude photo of a leading candidate’s wife is fair game? Nonsense on stilts.
Rank hypocrisy: C’mon — What’s the most common complaint you hear about Trump, especially from the right? His temperament.
That is, he’s vulgar, he’s uncouth, he isn’t (despite his famous pronouncements) classy. That he would downgrade the dignity of the office of the president.
You can’t have it both ways, guys. Either you think Trump contributes to the erosion of political discourse in America or you don’t. But don’t criticize him for stooping low and then stoop lower yourself.
Make America Awesome isn’t the first to fall into this trap. When the GOP’s initial anti-Trump strategy of hoping and praying he fades failed, the next idea was to hit Trump hard — go right at his core. Marco Rubio, easily the most uplifting, made-for-TV (as opposed to made-for-reality-TV) candidate in the race, stepped into the ring.
Some of Rubio’s attacks were direct hits. “He is a con artist,” Rubio said at a February rally in Dallas. “He runs on this idea he is fighting for the little guy, but he has spent his entire career sticking it to the little guy.”
But others were cringeworthy — if not in the heat of the moment, then at least in retrospect. He suggested Trump wet his pants at one debate, made fun of his looks, needled him about the size of his hands. (Trump was far from innocent here, repeatedly calling Rubio “little Marco” and claiming Rubio was sweaty.)
Rubio, to his great credit, understood. “My kids were embarrassed by it, and if I had to do it again, I wouldn’t,” he told MSNBC.
There’s another element to the hypocrisy. The GOP is supposed to be the party of family values. Of treating marriage as an institution worthy of honor and discretion. However much you may think Trump violates this precept, two wrongs don’t make a right.
The low regard the ad shows for religious voters: I grew up in Lakewood, NJ, home of a yuuuge ultra-Orthodox Jewish community. Though I wasn’t Haredi myself, I had (and have) friends and family in that community. And I can’t imagine the strictly religious Jews believing that sending them pictures of naked women is an appeal to their better angels.
In fact, I’d think the opposite.
Maybe Mormons are different. I hope not.
We’re told the ads were targeted to Mormon women. As if that excuses the insult to the voter that’s at the core of this message. Anyway, this is the Internet, where naked images of famous women go viral. Plus, the ad was basically a rip-off of a notorious CNN news segment from a few weeks ago.
People keep saying this election is a battle for the survival of the GOP. Maybe. But if this is how the party of faith and family values fights for its life, it’s dead already.