In a move that left many scratching their heads, former President Donald Trump's 2024 election campaign recently promoted an ad on Facebook that utilized dystopian images to paint a dire picture of the United States under President Joe Biden.
However, it has since been revealed that two of the primary images used in the ad are actually from Trump's own time in office. Forbes technology reporter Matt Novak discovered this major gaffe, pointing out the source of two of the images used by Trump's campaign.
The text of the Facebook post accompanying the ad asked,
"Were you not better off before Biden?"
You can see the ad below.
Facebook Ads
It went on to declare that under Biden's leadership, America is in decline, with an open border, open mockery from enemies, and inflation at its highest level in four decades. The ad then encouraged people to contribute to ensure that the launch of Biden’s reelection campaign "backfires."
The ad displays an image of Biden's head in the center of a collage, which includes photos of a burning police car on one side and people who appear to be migrants crossing a river on the other.
Novak reported that the image of the burning cop car was taken in Chicago, Illinois, on May 30, 2020, during Trump's presidency, and just days after video of the police killing of George Floyd was made public, sparking months of protests throughout the US.
The other primary image in the Trump ad was taken by photographer Moises Castillo and was distributed by the Associated Press. The AP captioned the photo, "Central American migrants cross the Suchiate River from Mexico to Guatemala, near Tecun Uman, Guatemala, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2020," also during Trump's term. Novak pointed out that the ad's implication that the migrants are heading north to the US is incorrect as they are, in fact, traveling south.
The ad, which was displayed towards the end of April, remains accessible for viewing in Facebook's Ad Library and was primarily directed at users residing in the states of Florida, Texas, and California.
Many have criticized and mocked Trump's gaffe since it was revealed.
Although the United States presidential election is still eighteen months away, both Joe Biden and Donald Trump have commenced their ad campaigns.
The Republican Party has even taken to utilizing entirely AI-produced ads.
Nevertheless, judging from Trump's present approach, it's clear that he intends to continue to attempt to dupe the electorate once more.
@realDonaldTrump/Truth Social