It had to happen. On Thursday, Donald Trump defended that despicable Republican attack ad that everyone is talking about this week, writing on Truth Social: “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.” And he didn’t stop there! He of course took the side of Donna Arthur, Acton’s estranged mother, who decided to stay married to her daughter’s rapist and is the ad’s “star”: “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.” And he didn’t stop there, either: “The Press is trying to convince everyone that this Ad is bad, because it’s so good! Who wouldn’t use such an Ad? I would, it’s called, ‘hitting pay dirt.’”
There you have it. The sickest and most repulsive TV ad in American political history, endorsed by the sickest and most repulsive human in American political history. Once again, Trump drags America to a bottom that most of us didn’t know existed.
But is it really the bottom? Please. There’s always a new bottom with Trump. We’re 12 days out from Election Day. And we’re 73 days out from January 3, when, by custom and in theory, the next Congress will be sworn in and seated—a ceremony whose execution right now seems very much in doubt. There’s time for a dozen new bottoms between now and then.
But this is the bottom we have for now, and it’s worth noting, because it screams at us that there is literally nothing these MAGA Republicans won’t do for power. And don’t be fooled by these headlines about “overwhelming bipartisan denunciation.” Yes, some Republicans have denounced the ad—but if you look at it, it’s not really that many. Ohioans Mike DeWine and Jon Husted did, lest its mephitic stink encircle them (although DeWine added that he still endorses Ramaswamy, so what is that denunciation worth?). But if you google “Republican senators and House members who have denounced the Ramaswamy ad,” you’ll find pretty slim pickings.
The press loves to slap the word “bipartisan” on a story whenever it can, even on the thinnest of justifications. When a group of New Republic editors was discussing this matter on Wednesday morning, one editor said, “Yeah, I see these headlines that say ‘bipartisan criticism of Trump,’ and I look for the Republicans, and it’s one quote from Thom Tillis.”
So: Does it really matter that Meghan McCain denounced the ad? Or even Nikki Haley, who is (for now) retired from politics? Representative Nancy Mace, who has spoken about being raped, laid into it, so at least that’s one sitting non-Ohio GOP pol. I’d imagine there were a few others that I missed, but the outrage has been a long, long distance from universal.
And among right-wing pundits? I admit that I don’t read or watch them much, and spending too much time googling the matter feels a bit like googling how many mass shooters denounced Dylan Roof. So maybe some Fox News host was indeed genuinely outraged, and for this, I (with one hand) applaud them.
But Media Matters for America has collected a number of right-wing commentators who are as pleased as punch about it:
- Michael Knowles of the Daily Wire called it “brilliant, brilliant,” adding: “I think it’s a very, very effective ad. It’s brutal.”
- Newsmax host Greg Kelly: “Everybody in Ohio and the country should be listening to Amy Acton’s mom.” And: “The mother speaks with love here. I believe the mother loves Amy.” And: “And she seems like a very nice lady, actually.… Wow, that’s some—the mother, I believe her.”
- Dan Bongino, the podcaster turned FBI honcho turned podcaster: “This is the most destructive political ad I have ever seen.”
- Gateway Pundit’s Wayne Allyn Root: “The more you meet these Democrat candidates, they’re all crazy. They’re all covering up for the fact that they’ve had mental illness their whole life. They’re crazy, whacked-out people.” He also called the ad “absolutely hilarious.”
You might say that this doesn’t add up to much. And perhaps it doesn’t. Maybe Ramaswamy’s polls will tell him that the blowback is too much.
But there exists another possibility. Now that the president of the United States has lent the ad his imprimatur, a day after his vice president did the same, I submit to you that it’s pretty clear what the next 12 days could bring. Trump, Ramaswamy, and JD Vance—the latter two, by the way, were buds when they were at Yale Law together—will keep pushing and pushing this. And the right-wing media, and that segment of it that might have been knocked back on its heels for the first 48 or 72 hours, will collect itself and hop enthusiastically on this toxic train.
I hope Amy Acton and her campaign team are ready for this. A normal person … well, a normal person wouldn’t have made and run that ad to begin with. But let’s say a normal person did. Said normal person would take stock of the revulsion and quietly pull the ad, or scale back the buy, and change the subject to something “relevant” like trans athletes.
But these are not normal people. These are sick, twisted, cruel, sadistic, and psychotic people. That’s five adjectives, which may seem like a bit much, but I chose them with care. They do not care at all that Acton was raped as a 12-year-old girl. They care only about how they can crush her—politically, emotionally, in every way. That’s what makes these people different. They don’t just want to win elections. They want to destroy lives.
And here’s a question that I really hate to ask, but it’s one we must contemplate: What if Ramaswamy still wins? It’s possible. And if he does, it’s hard for us normal people to imagine what kind of attacks will be unleashed for 2028 and beyond if this vile smear works.
It probably won’t work. It probably will backfire. But I hope Acton and her team are not sitting there assuming that Ramaswamy is going to soften his approach. He’s going to start hitting harder on this and other points. And Trump and Vance will have his back. It will be yet another new bottom. But rest assured that it won’t be the last.