Trump ad warning of violence against police uses image from 2014 Kiev protests

Ad aimed at Christians as Trump's support slips with Evangelicals

Graig Graziosi
Wednesday 22 July 2020 17:54 BST
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A political advert from the Evangelicals for Trump campaign group used an image from the Ukraine uprising to illustrate US civil unrest.

The ad features side-by-side images, one portraying Donald Trump surrounded by law enforcement officials, and the other an officer lying on pavement and surrounded by protesters. One of the protesters appears to be trying to take the officer's baton.

Beneath the image of Trump are the words "public safety" and beneath the protesters is "chaos & violence."

The photo of the officer appears to be a photo from 2014 showing a crowd of people attacking a police officer in Kyiv. It was uploaded to Wikimedia Commons, a public domain image repository.

The ad was paid for by "Donald J Trump for President, Inc" and was shared on Facebook by the Donald J Trump Facebook page.

Mr Trump has tried to portray himself as the "law and order" president since the onset of the George Floyd protests. Since the protests against police brutality and systemic violence began, Mr Trump has threatened to use the military against protesters, suggested protesters are secret members of Antifa, called protesters "anarchists" who "hate our country," passed an executive order that made destroying a monument, memorial or statue punishable with up to 10 years in prison, and authorised the invasion of Portland by federal government troops against the wishes of the city's leaders.

It is unclear if the photo's inclusion in the ad was an act of deliberate deception or if it was a mistake.

Evangelicals for Trump aims to rally support among Evangelical Christian Americans for Mr Trump.

The president's support among Evangelicals — which broadly refers to white, Protestant Christians — has weakened since the onset of the coronavirus. In March, 80 per cent of white Evangelicals said they approved of him; in June, that number dipped to 62 per cent.

While those numbers are still high, it shows a waning of support for the president in a voter demographic that has been stalwart Republican supporters since at least the 1980's.

This isn't the first Facebook ad for Mr Trump that has included misinformation or been criticised for its content.

An ad featuring a peaceful May Day protest accused people of being involved in Antifa, and another called Senator Elizabeth Warren "Pocahontas." More recently, an ad featuring a Nazi symbol used at concentration camps to identify political prisoners was pulled from the social media giant after people complained.

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