Just hours into the government shutdown, President Donald Trump‘s reelection campaign released a racist immigration ad blaming Democrats for murders committed by illegal immigrants.
The 30-second ad, called “Complicit,” opens with footage from a courtroom outburst during twice-deported undocumented immigrant Luis Bracamontes’ trial. Bracamontes, named “pure evil” by the ad, was accused of killing two deputies in the Sacramento area in 2014.
“Now Democrats who stand in our way will be complicit in every murder committed by illegal immigrants,” narration in the video says. “President Trump will fix our border and keep our families safe.”
Michael Glassner, the executive director of Trump’s reelection campaign committee, said in a statement that the ad would highlight “the stark contrast between ‘complicit’ Democrats and the President for his full commitment to build a wall and fix our border to protect Americans from drugs, murder and other atrocities,” according to CNN.
We see this ad for what it is
While Trump and his advocates can claim they’re trying to keep America “safe,” this ad only highlights the xenophobic nature of the President’s arguments. From day one of his candidacy, Trump called Mexican immigrants “rapists,” and he’s racist rhetoric has only spiraled from there.
He has continued to beat the drum against immigration, leading chants of “build the wall” while promising that Mexico would pay for it.
And just before the government shutdown, Trump reportedly referred to El Salvador, Haiti and African nations as “shithole countries” during a bipartisan meeting on immigration where he also refused to accept an immigration agreement that would have granted protection for the Dreamers in exchange for movement on Trump’s harsher immigration standards, like the wall.
After fruitless negotiations, Republicans refused to budge on DACA, and talks stalled as the countdown to a government shutdown approached. Now, instead of taking responsibility for a total breakdown in negotiations, Trump is trying to blame Democrats for the shutdown.
Trump campaigned on the promise that he is a businessman who knows how to make deals. Instead, he is seemingly showing his true colors: a xenophobe who would rather demonize immigrants, especially people of color, than get any real work done.