“Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough laid into President Trump over his latest, taxpayer-funded political ads, calling them acts of “communism” and “socialism” and warning they are “bad for America.”
“[During] this thing that we’re going through with Donald Trump, very few things surprise me. When I saw, at the end of that ad, ‘Paid for by the U.S. government,’ that was such an Orbán, Putin move,” Scarborough said. “We’ll see if more conservatives come out and actually criticize this, but every single one should.”
“You have the centralized state, the behemoth centralized state, big government, stealing taxpayer dollars to run a political advertisement,” the “Morning Joe” host added. “If you’re at home and you pay taxes, you are paying for this political ad.”
In the black-and-white ad, which shows Trump walking ominously down a hallway while looking toward the camera, the president can be heard telling viewers that “this is the final battle” and that he will, with voters’ help, “demolish the Deep State,” “expel the warmongers from our government” and “cast out the communists, Marxists and fascists.”
The ad concludes with a message noting that it has been “paid for by the U.S. government.” For his part, Scarborough argued that the ad may have the exact opposite of its intended effect on voters.
“They’re going to get really pissed off that he’s promising no more foreign wars when we’re stuck in a foreign war of no end,” Scarborough explained, noting, “This is socialism, by the way. This is communism. A centralized state taking over companies, taking over corporations, running strongman ads on TV channels, seizing money from taxpayers, your constituents? Come on!”
The “Morning Joe” host went on to call out the Republican Party, questioning their reasons for letting the Trump administration make politically risky decisions like the president’s new, televised ads.
“The question is not why [the Trump administration is] doing it. We know why they’re doing it. The question is, ‘Why are Republicans allowing this to happen?’” Scarborough explained. “Why are you allowing the centralized state to seize money from your tax-paying constituents to run a political ad filled with lies?”
“You don’t understand how bad this is for the Republican Party? You’re going to keep quiet about this?” Scarborough continued. “This is bad. It’s bad for America. But if you don’t care about that, and there’s a lot of evidence right now that you don’t, it’s not only bad for America, it’s really bad for the Republican Party.”
“You need to make him stop,” the “Morning Joe” host warned Republican politicians, adding, “If you can’t make him stop, well, good luck in November.”
