Americans are already so clear on Donald Trump’s boorishness that we barely need to be reminded of it. That’s essentially the message from a pair of stylish new attack ads released this week by the pro-Hillary Clinton super PAC Priorities USA. The ads reiterate the now-familiar idea that Trump’s flagrant misogyny disqualifies him from the nation’s highest office. And, at 15 seconds apiece, they seem to acknowledge that whoever’s watching has almost definitely heard that reasoning before.
Like a flashcard for a factoid that you’ve already memorized, the first ad, “Greater Fathers,” pictures fleeting shots of a dad tending to his toddler, while a radio host asks Trump in voice-over, “Do you actually change diapers?” “No,” Trump replies, as the dad on-screen begins to do just that. “There are a lot of women out there [who] demand that the husband act like the wife. I like kids, I mean I won’t do anything to take care of them.” And that’s pretty much that. The words “America is greater than Donald Trump” flash on the screen, but the mood isn’t ominous. The music, a keyboard’s serene tinkling, seems to be saying, “You got this, America.”
The super PAC’s other new ad, “Greater Women,” zooms in on a mother horsing around with her kids. In the background, Priorities USA replays some of Trump’s most notorious comments, such as the line that journalist Megyn Kelly had “blood coming out of her wherever” when she criticized him in a debate, and the foul come-on in which he told a Celebrity Apprentice contestant, “Must be a pretty picture—you dropping to your knees.” It’s essentially a much shorter, much quieter version of a 30-second ad that Priorities USA dropped in May, which began with The Donald claiming, “Nobody respects women more than Donald Trump”—and then went on to prove that statement aggressively untrue.
The new ads are too dignified to work at convincing you that you’re too good to vote for Trump. They presume, politely, that you already know. As the Associated Press has reported, voters will certainly see the spots enough times: Priorities USA “plans to spend about $4 million a week through most of June” and then to unload “$60 million in ads between September and Election Day,” as the AP wrote in May. Since the latest projections show Trump being outspent on TV ads by a $116 million margin, swing-state residents may appreciate that, if nothing else, Clinton is keeping it brief.
