Ex-Trump Aides Behind Scare Ads Attacking Democrats Over Transgender Issues And Immigration

Topline

Several ex-aides to former President Donald Trump—including advisor Stephen Miller—are behind a recent ad blitz that ties Democrats to hate crimes against Asian Americans, demonizes efforts to expand healthcare access for transgender people and attacks President Joe Biden’s immigration policies.

Key Facts

A commercial that aired during a recent San Diego Padres/Los Angeles Dodgers game and was paid for by Citizens for Sanity—a political group led by three ex-Trump aides—claimed “drug dealers, sex traffickers and violent predators” are crossing the border thanks to Biden’s immigration policies, the Los Angeles Times reported last week.

Citizens for Sanity posted an online ad over the weekend linking Biden to the rise in hate attacks on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, even though some of the attacks featured in the video occurred during Trump’s tenure, The Intercept reported.

In Pennsylvania and Tennessee, the America First Legal Foundation—a nonprofit group founded by Miller—ran radio ads this month in which the narrator claims, as ominous music plays in the background, that Biden and progressive leaders “promote puberty blockers” that ostensibly leave patients “sterile, infertile, impotent.”

The radio ads, which ask listeners to “tell Joe Biden and left-wing leaders across America: hands off our kids,” are an apparent reference to the Biden Administration’s policies to preserve access to gender-affirming healthcare.

America First Legal also sent out Spanish-language mail ads to voters in Colorado that accuse Democrats of “pushing radical and irreversible gender experiments on children,” a message that was accompanied by a photo of Health and Human Services official Rachel Levine, the first transgender person to hold a Senate-confirmed post, the Colorado Sun reported.

Big Number

$33 million. That’s how much money Citizens for Sanity has spent or reserved on midterm ads since October 1 across a dozen states as of Sunday, according to the ad tracking firm AdImpact, making it the eighth highest spending group nationwide.

Key Background

Miller is the architect of some of the most controversial Trump-era immigration policies, including a ban on travel from several majority-Muslim countries and attempts to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. He launched America First Legal in 2021, aiming to “deliver a significant blow” to “woke ideologues” in court, he told Fox News. The group has filed a series of legal actions against the Biden Administration over COVID-19 restrictions and immigration policies. America First Legal has close ties to Citizens for Sanity, led by three former Trump aides (Gene Hamilton, Ian Prior and John Zadrozny) who also work for Miller’s organization.

Tangent

Republicans have increasingly sought to attack Democrats on transgender medical care. Some state legislatures have successfully passed laws to prevent trans women from participating in high school sports. And earlier this year, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) ordered state agencies to open child abuse investigations against parents who allow their children to undergo gender-affirming medical treatment. The American Academy of Pediatrics has sharply criticized restrictions on gender-affirming medical care, arguing these policies interfere in doctor-patient decisions and can harm patients’ socioemotional health.

Further Reading

A Group of Former Trump Aides Is Behind Racist and False Anti-Immigrant Ads (Mother Jones)

Who’s Behind the Racist Campaign Ads in Arizona? (The Nation)