Trump’s anti-trans ads were expensive and unpopular – why were they his key strategy?
Trump’s campaign spent more than five times as much on anti-trans ads than on ads focused on the economy. THIS ARTICLE FIRST APPEARED ON UNCLOSETED MEDIA A NEW INVESTIGATIVE LGBTQIA+ FOCUSSED NEWS PUBLICATION. WORDS BY SPENCER MACNAUGHTON AND HOPE PISONI ADDITIONAL REPORTING AND COVER IMAGE DESIGN BY SAM DONNDELINGER COVER IMAGE DATA BY ADIMPACT VIA THE BULWARK AND GALLUP When Lil Miss Hot Mess conducted a drag story hour at a library in Los Angeles, she never expected to be the face of a multimillion-dollar Republican ad campaign.
In a 2022 ad for Marco Rubio’s Senate reelection campaign, footage of Lil Miss Hot Mess reading to children is overlaid by Rubio’s voice: “The radical left will destroy children if we don’t stop them.” “They indoctrinate children, try to turn boys into girls,” says Rubio, now Trump’s nominee for secretary of State.
Whether Lil Miss Hot Mess likes it or not, she was one of the influential faces that spurred a movement of GOP ads that targeted the transgender community.
Since that ad aired, Republicans have made attacking the trans community a key strategy, spending roughly $215 million in the 2024 election cycle, more than $29 million of which was spent on the presidential race alone.
