President Donald Trump issued an unequivocal endorsement of the controversial political video advertisement from Republican Vivek Ramaswamy.
The ad features the mother of his opponent for the gubernatorial race in Ohio calling her a liar and asking Ohioans not to vote for her.
'That took a lot of courage to do but, essentially, what she was really doing was saving Ohio from making a truly horrible choice!'
Amy Acton, the Democratic candidate, excoriated Ramaswamy for using her mother in an ad after Acton suffered sexual abuse by her mother's partner when she was a child.
Various Republicans have called on Ramaswamy to take the ad down, but the president is not one of them.
"Vivek Ramaswamy put up a very powerful Ad about a mother saying that her daughter, Amy Acton, who is running for Governor of Ohio, is a liar, and much worse," Trump wrote in a post on social media Thursday.
"The Press, in a concerted and well coordinated attack, is trying to get Vivek Ramaswamy to 'take down the Ad.' Frankly, anybody whose mother spoke about a daughter in that way would normally lead to the daughter being precluded from serving in Office, let alone the Office of Governor," he added.
He went on to fully endorse Ramaswamy leaving the ad up.
"I only wish the mothers of my opponents would be so brave as to come forward and explain that their son or daughter is a liar, and much worse," he added. "That took a lot of courage to do but, essentially, what she was really doing was saving Ohio from making a truly horrible choice! The Press is trying to convince everyone that this Ad is bad, because it's so good!"
Among the more prominent Republicans calling for the ad to be taken down was Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R).
"The ad, on its face, is deeply, deeply troubling. But when you know the rest of the story, when you know the backstory, when you know that the husband of the mom was indicted by a grand jury after hearing testimony, and that he took off along with the mother," DeWine said to reporters.
"When you know that, it just, to me, makes it more serious. It makes it just more wrong. So it's wrong to run this ad ... I would just urge the Ramaswamy campaign to take this down," he added.
On the other hand, Vice President JD Vance excoriated Republicans for criticizing Ramaswamy.
RELATED: JD Vance says he is 'DISGUSTED' with Republicans after controversial Ramaswamy ad
Acton was 12 years old when her biological father reported her stepfather to police over allegations that he had raped Acton for a period of time, beginning December 1976 and ending April 1978.
Acton's stepfather, Cledith Arthur, pleaded not guilty and then failed to appear in court before becoming a fugitive from the law. He died in 2004.
The Rooster political blog first shared the ad, but the Ramaswamy campaign took responsibility for the video Tuesday and indicated it had plans to spend $4 million to promote the ad.
Ohio governor polls 2026: Acton vs. Ramaswamy
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