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This has as much to do with economic anxiety as the Pete Wilson ads of the Prop 187 era had to do with economic anxiety. In fact, the resemblance between the two, including darkened depictions of immigrants as invaders, is unmistakeable. Republicans are well aware that the Prop 187 campaign was the beginning of the California GOP’s long slide into oblivion. They’re also aware that wide swaths of the country are coming to look more like California than like Iowa every day. If bigotry were truly an impotent force in Republican politics, other candidates would be leapfrogging each other to denounce the ad, not as “unserious,” but as racist, and not just because racism is wrong, but because they want the national Republican Party to avoid the California party’s fate. Their indifference tells the whole story here.
The first ad, titled “Great Again,” makes clear that Trump’s closing pitch to voters will be as visceral and arresting as the one he delivers at raucous rallies. It is a full embrace of the most incendiary of his proposals, as opposed to the more biographical spots that some other candidates favor.
One afternoon last week in the candidate’s 26th-floor suite at Trump Tower here, the fiery depictions of global terrorism flickered on Trump’s face as he stared down at campaign manager Corey Lewandowski’s laptop computer to watch the final cut of the ad.
“Play it again,” Trump told Lewandowski, nodding approvingly. “I love the feel of it.”