Anti-Trump Lincoln Project mocks GOP's grim assessment of America on RNC's opening night

Group has hammered the president for months with its deep-pocketed attack ads

The Lincoln Project, a group of well-funded anti-Trump Republicans, has published a new ad depicting the first night of the Republican National Convention as a depiction of an America that doesn't exist.

The group has harshly criticised the president for months, and endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee.

The organisation has used slickly produced and rhetorically pointed videos to warn voters that, in their view, Mr Trump is a threat to democracy and unfit for office, and that his policies are hurting the country – or vapid.

Out in time for the second night of primetime programming for the Republican National Convention, the latest spot features short clips of Monday night's speakers describing America as overrun by crime, beset by drug dealers and violent gangs, "sex traffickers" and "abandoned buildings".

It shows longtime California school teacher Rebecca Friedrichs, who once sued the state's teacher's association, blasting teachers unions and "their comrades" for allegedly having "labelled us spawns of Satan and slandered us in mainstream media".

It also features Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz saying Democrats want to invite the brutal MS-13 gang to live next door to American families.

But GOP officials have called the convention's first night a rousing success of truth-telling about Democrats.