‘They’re all the same’: Donald Trump ad counterprograms Democratic debates

As a phalanx of Democratic presidential hopefuls gears up for two nights of debate, President Donald Trump has a message for home viewers.

“They’re all the same.”

That’s the title of an ad the Trump campaign is running on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News Tuesday and Wednesday night as Democrats rehearse their talking points.

The new television ad blasts Democrats for proposing free taxpayer-funded health care for illegal immigrants while also supporting a government takeover of health care that would eliminate private insurance.

“These Democrats support giving illegal immigrants health care at our expense,” the ad asserts. “Calling for socialized medicine … destroying health care as we know it.”

“Radical, reckless, socialist,” the stentorian voice-over booms. “They’re all the same.”

The ad serves as a reminder to those outside activist circles that the rhetoric needed to appeal to the purists on the left can be framed as out-of-the-mainstream extremism once the nomination is decided.

It also allows the President to blur lines between relative moderates, such as former Vice President Joe Biden, and the Sens. Bernie Sanders/Elizabeth Warren axis.

Expect much more of this from the President’s re-election campaign, which is running laps around even the most organized Democratic primary efforts in terms of fundraising. The President raised over $105 million in Q2.