Public Citizen Parody Ad – to Run Tuesday on Fox News – Turns Trump Campaign Rhetoric on Its Head
Dec. 12, 2016
Public Citizen Parody Ad – to Run Tuesday on Fox News – Turns Trump Campaign Rhetoric on Its Head
Ad Will Air Tuesday Morning on Fox & Friends
WASHINGTON, D.C. – President-elect Donald Trump’s hypocrisy in selecting wealthy corporate elites for his future administration is highlighted in a parody ad to air Tuesday morning on Fox News.
Scheduled to run between 7 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. EST during “Fox & Friends,” the ad likely will be seen by millions of voters who believed Trump’s boast that he would “drain the swamp.” On the contrary, he’s stuffing his administration full of CEOs, corporate lobbyists and major billionaire campaign contributors.
The parody video juxtaposes Trump’s final “Argument for America” campaign ad about draining the swamp with his corporate Cabinet picks, highlighting the extent to which his “anti-establishment” supporters got played.
For instance, while Trump says “Our movement is about replacing a failed and corrupt political establishment,” images show a headline that says, “Trump dives into ‘the swamp’ for Cabinet picks” and a picture of Wilbur Ross, Trump’s pick for U.S. Department of Commerce secretary, with captions saying “billionaire investor” and “king of bankruptcy schemes.”
“Candidate Trump said he would end corruption, cronyism and corporate insider dealmaking,” said Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen. “But President-elect Trump is embedding corruption into his administration and handing control of the government over to corporate interests.”
A longer version of the ad, which Public Citizen posted on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube last Thursday, has reached more than a million people on Facebook and nearly half a million people on Twitter.
“Trump voters should feel betrayed,” Weissman said. “We hope the president-elect will be watching.”
Trump’s Cabinet picks include:
- Rex Tillerson, Exxon Mobil CEO, to be secretary of state. This would blur the line between diplomacy, national interests and corporate interests.
- Goldman Sachs executive Steven Mnuchin for Treasury secretary. Mnuchin has been described in some reports as an “an investor with so much Wall Street blood in his veins.”
- Betsy DeVos, a conservative billionaire who favors vouchers, to head the U.S. Department of Education.
- Fossil fuel ally and Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to be administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Pruitt is an EPA critic and noted skeptic of climate change science.
- Elaine Chao, former labor secretary under George W. Bush, Wells Fargo board member and spouse of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, to run the U.S. Department of Transportation.
- Fast food franchise owner Andrew Puzder, a critic of worker protections and opponent of a minimum wage increase, to be U.S. Department of Labor secretary.
Visit Public Citizen’s Trump resource center.
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