Biden Spends $50M to Brand Trump as a Convicted Criminal

Matt Smith Photographer / shutterstock.com
Matt Smith Photographer / shutterstock.com

President Biden’s campaign has launched a $50 million television ad blitz targeting Donald Trump’s 34-count felony business fraud conviction. This ad campaign marks the first time the 81-year-old Democratic president has highlighted Trump’s conviction by a Manhattan jury on May 30, attacking the 78-year-old GOP presidential candidate as “a convicted criminal who’s only out for himself.”

In a juicy 30-second ad titled “Character Matters,” the narrator smugly says, “In the courtroom, we see Donald Trump for who he is,” before gleefully listing off verdicts from Trump’s “hush money” case and civil suits by E. Jean Carroll and New York AG Letitia James.

The ad states that Biden is “lowering health care costs and making big corporations pay their fair share.” The narrator summarizes the election as a choice between “a convicted criminal who’s only out for himself and a president who is fighting for your family.” The ad paints Biden as a hero because, you know, it’s not like he’s got any skeletons in his closet—oh wait, there’s Hunter.

In February, Trump was ordered to pay $355 million after a New York judge found that he had inflated his net worth by billions over a decade, deceiving insurers and expanding his real estate empire. Additionally, a Manhattan jury ordered Trump to pay $83.3 million in damages to Carroll for denying her sexual abuse accusations and defaming her. These judgments highlight the sharp contrast the Biden campaign aims to emphasize.

Biden campaign spokesman, Michael Taylor, stated that the contrast between Biden and Trump “matters deeply to the American people.” However, Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt accused the Biden administration of “weaponizing the justice system against President Trump,” leading to his criminal conviction.

Trump is still facing two federal indictments for mishandling classified information and interfering in the 2020 election, along with another prosecution in Atlanta over attempts to reverse Biden’s electoral victory there. Trump has turned his criminal cases into a profit machine, hawking merchandise with his mugshot and bragging that his sales have outdone icons like Elvis and Frank Sinatra.

In addition to the $50 million ad blitz, Biden’s campaign is dedicating $1 million to media targeting Black, Hispanic, and Asian-American voters, demographics where Trump has made gains since 2020. Young, nonwhite, and disengaged Democrat-leaning voters are seen as likely to shift away from Trump following his conviction.

Biden and Trump will face off on June 27 in Atlanta for the first presidential debate of the season on CNN, where their differences are expected to be starkly highlighted.