A Democratic California gubernatorial candidate is using Donald Trump’s own words against him in a campaign ad attacking the president over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
Businessman Stephen Cloobeck, who is hoping to replace the term-limited Gov. Gavin Newsom in the 2026 election, is launching a large-scale online and TV campaign to suggest that “Trump is for they/them” in reference to the pair of convicted child sex offenders, while the Democrat is “working for you.”
The tagline is a play on Trump’s “Kamala is for they/them” attack line he used against the former vice president during the 2024 campaign, which went after Kamala Harris’ pro-transgender stances, including support of gender-affirming medical treatment for prisoners.
Cloobeck is keeping the heat on Trump by reminding voters of his relationship with the pedophile Epstein, who died in August 2019, and Maxwell, who is currently serving 20 years in prison for helping the disgraced financier abuse children.
The ad highlights Trump and Epstein’s yearslong friendship and includes headlines about the saga surrounding Epstein that Trump has failed to shake off, despite wave after wave of distraction attempts.
This includes reports noting the president’s MAGA base is furious at his administration for not releasing the Epstein files as promised, how the late pedophile attended Trump’s wedding to Marla Maples in 1993, and Trump telling reporters he cut ties with Epstein because the financier “stole” young workers from Mar-a-Lago. One of the women Trump alleged Epstein “stole” from him was Virginia Giuffre, a sex trafficking victim of Epstein’s who took her own life in April.
Cloobeck’s ad will also aim to capitalize on the latest update in the narrative engulfing Trump—that Maxwell has been moved to a minimum-security facility in Texas amid ongoing suggestions the president is considering pardoning her in exchange for her testimony. Trump has previously noted that, while no one has asked him to pardon Maxwell, he would be “allowed” to do so.
“Transferring Maxwell to ‘Club Fed’ shows once again that Trump has no sense of justice and no respect for the rule of law,” Cloobeck said, referring to the prison camp where she’s now held.
“Ghislaine Maxwell destroyed the lives of too many young women and girls, and they deserve better. Her crimes were so horrific that even a 20-year prison sentence feels light. So why did Team Trump hand her this big favor? And what’s next, a full pardon?”
Cloobeck, the founder of Diamond Resorts International, said he was running for California governor to go “toe-to-toe with Trump to fight against his corruption.”
The “Trump is for they/them” ad will air across California, as well as New York, Washington D.C., and the president’s adopted home state of Florida, where Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort is located.
Trump’s “Kamala is for they/them” was considered one of his most successful ads of the 2024 campaign, and its various forms aired more than 30,000 times, including in all seven swing states, reported NPR.
Analysis from Future Forward, Harris’ main super PAC, found that the ad shifted the race 2.7 percentage points in Trump’s favor after viewers watched it, according to The New York Times.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast.
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