A Facebook ad run by Donald Trump that actually features photos from Trump's presidency.
Donald Trump started a new ad campaign on Facebook last week that insists the U.S. is doing worse under President Joe Biden. The Facebook ads even include photos trying to suggest the chaos we see in those images is a direct result of Biden’s policies. The only problem? The two most prominent photos in the ad are from Trump’s time at the White House.
The first thing people will probably notice in the ad is a photo of a burning cop car. But that photo was taken in Chicago, Illinois on May 30, 2020. Trump was president from January 20, 2017 until January 20, 2021, which means the image you’re seeing happened on Trump’s watch.
The photo was published by outlets like the Daily Mail and AZ Central on May 31, 2020, not long after footage surfaced of police officers killing George Floyd on May 25, 2020. One of the cops placed his knee on Floyd’s neck while the other cops sat by and didn’t do anything to stop the killing.
Floyd’s death set off a wave of protests that summer, some of which turned violent. But none of that had anything to do with the Biden presidency despite what Trump is trying to convey with his Facebook ad campaign, which declares in bold white type, “Under Joe Biden, America is a nation in decline.”
The original photo on the left, taken on May 30, 2020, when Donald Trump was still president. And ... [+]
What about the image on the right of Biden, showing people wading through some water? Again, that image is from Trump’s time in office.
The photo was captured by photographer Moises Castillo and was distributed to media outlets through the Associated Press. And while Trump’s presidential campaign probably wants to make it look like the photo depicts migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, it doesn’t even depict that. The photo actually shows migrants crossing from Mexico to Guatemala.
The photo bears the caption, “Central American migrants cross the Suchiate River from Mexico to Guatemala, near Tecun Uman, Guatemala, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2020.”
That’s right—apparently these people aren’t even traveling north to the U.S. They’re heading south, according to the stock image service Alamy. The ad, which can be viewed at Facebook’s Ad Library, was run most heavily in Florida, Texas, and California—states where many Republicans are upset about the influx of immigrants.
Photo showing migrants crossing from Mexico to Guatemala on January 21, 2020 (left) and the Trump ad ... [+]
What about the other two photos in the ad? One shows higher gas prices, and while I was unable to figure out where these photos came from, I don’t doubt they’re real. Gas prices have shot up considerably since President Trump was in office, but there’s one small detail that’s often left out of that discussion: The first year of the pandemic, 2020, people were driving less and gas prices plummeted. You can blame high gas prices on Biden if you want, but you at least have to keep that little fact in mind when comparing gas prices from 2020 to 2023.
The last photo appears to be the Chinese spy balloon that was eventually shot down over the Atlantic coast after soaring across most of the U.S. That issue, again, you can attribute to Biden, as long as you keep in mind that Chinese spy balloons were reported to be flying over the U.S. when Trump was president too.
The U.S. presidential election is still a year and a half away, but both Joe Biden and Donald Trump are already running ads. The GOP is even running ads made completely with artificial intelligence. And if Trump’s current tactics are any indication, he’s going to keep lying as we get closer to election day. This is the guy, after all, who famously posted photoshopped images that made his fingers look longer in 2019. Seriously.
