Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign is running this 30-second ad on television stations across the battleground states at a cost of more than $4.9 million, according to AdImpact.
Here’s a look at the ad, its accuracy and its major takeaway.
On the Screen
The ad opens with a series of close-up shots of the sweaty face of former President Donald J. Trump.
It then shows a copy of Project 2025, the policy blueprint for a conservative presidential administration written by many of Mr. Trump’s allies. Mr. Trump has tried to distance himself from some of the radical policies outlined in the document, but Democrats have argued that many match his own positions.
The screen flashes to images of the Americans whom the ad argues Mr. Trump’s administration will hurt: families with children, a worried older couple going through bills, a young woman and her partner talking to a doctor. We also see a neo-Classical style bank representing those who will be helped: the ultrarich.
The spot ends with dark, ominous images of Mr. Trump.
The Script
Narrator:
“Donald Trump makes a lot of promises, but we can be sure of one thing: If he wins, he’ll ignore all checks that rein in a president’s power. It’s all in Trump’s Project 2025 agenda. What does that mean for you? Higher cost on groceries. Cuts to Social Security and Medicare. More tax breaks for billionaires. And a national abortion ban putting women’s health at risk. A second Trump term: more unhinged, unstable and unchecked.”
Accuracy
The ad tends to conflate Mr. Trump’s policy proposals with Project 2025, which was spearheaded by the conservative Heritage Foundation, using the catchy phrase to represent his agenda.
Mr. Trump has disavowed Project 2025, saying that “I know nothing about it.”
Still, there are many similarities between Project 2025’s policy proposals and those put forward by his campaign, and the ad generally captures what their effects could be.
On groceries, Mr. Trump’s pledges to impose tariffs on food imports and deport undocumented immigrants, many of whom work in agriculture, could lead to higher prices at stores, according to both liberal and conservative economists.
Earlier in the campaign, Mr. Trump suggested that he was open to cutting or privatizing Social Security, a deeply unpopular position that he has since walked back. He has more recently said he wants to end taxes on Social Security income, which could be a boon to older Americans. While Mr. Trump has pledged that he will protect Medicare from cuts, Project 2025 does call for changes to the program, including a repeal of a Biden administration law that allows the government to negotiate prescription drug prices with pharmaceutical companies.
Mr. Trump has also vowed to extend his 2017 tax cuts, which favor wealthy people. And while his campaign now says that he would veto a national abortion ban, he frequently backed such legislation during his term in the White House.
The Takeaway
The ad forms part of Ms. Harris’s closing argument: that Mr. Trump is a right-wing authoritarian who will make life less affordable for the middle class, threaten access to abortion and side with billionaires against working people.
As the campaign moves into its final days, Ms. Harris has sought to elevate Mr. Trump to the center of her message, seeking to remind Americans why they voted him out of office in 2020.
In doing so, Project 2025 has become a stand-in for his policies. “Can you believe they put that in writing?” Ms. Harris often asks the crowds at her rallies with a laugh. Many of the plan’s roughly 900 pages detail extreme executive-branch overhauls, and Democrats have focused on its least popular provisions.
Ultimately, the ad highlights what the Harris campaign believes are two of its most effective arguments: the economy and abortion.
The first argument is a defensive one, as many voters blame Mr. Biden for high prices and wages that have not kept up. The ad seeks to counter that sentiment by saying the problem will worsen under Mr. Trump.
The second shows the Harris campaign going on offense. Protecting or expanding abortion access has led to unexpected victories for Democrats, even in red states. Ms. Harris is hoping that voters who value abortion rights, especially women, turn out for her in force on Election Day.
The post The Harris Team Tries to Tether Trump to Project 2025 appeared first on New York Times.
