Donald Trump’s debut TV spot released on Monday promises Republican primary voters that he will “stop illegal immigration by building a wall on our southern border that Mexico will pay for.”
The narration is superimposed over footage of about a dozen people crossing some sort of border.
The only problem with that is the border is not actually in Mexico or Texas or Arizona, but Morocco.
The Pulitzer-prize winning staff at Politifact did a little digging and found that the footage actually aired in May 2014 on an Italian television network and the migrants featured in it were crossing into into the Spanish enclave of Melilla on the north African coast, only about 5,200 miles away from Mexico.
But according to Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, the use of Moroccans as opposed to Mexicans was on purpose.
“No s–t it’s in Morocco. The footage was intentional. It’s intended to demonstrate the impact of an open border,” he told CNN. “If we don’t do something to build a wall and stop illegal immigration, that’s what our country’s going to look like.”