The Democratic National Committee put up billboards around Miami blasting former President Donald Trump and the Republican Party for threatening “our American way of life,” a move made in advance of Trump’s rally at his Doral golf club Tuesday.
The timing of the ads coincided with speculation Trump will soon announce his choice for a running mate and as President Biden faces mounting pressure to step down after an unsteady debate performance.
The ads — which appeared in five locations — link Trump to Project 2025, a 900-page blueprint for changing the United States the former president has claimed to know nothing about. The billboards called Project 2025 Trump’s plan for “revenge and retribution,” and describe it as “terrifying” and “dystopian.”
Project 2025 is a collection of conservative policy proposals by the Heritage Foundation to consolidate presidential power, reshape federal government, and replace veteran bureaucrats with political appointees.
“Donald Trump’s Project 2025 is the biggest threat to our American way of life we’ve faced in generations,” said Abhi Rahman, spokesman for the DNC.
Rahman called Project 2025 “an extreme, anti-choice and anti-democracy agenda,” and blamed Trump’s “handpicked Supreme Court” for overturning Roe V. Wade, which led to states across the country, including Florida, approving stricter regulations on access to abortions.
The RNC on Monday adopted a draft 2024 platform that reflects Trump’s positions, making it more nationalistic but less socially conservative than the 2016 and 2020 platforms, The New York Times and The Washington Post reported.
It doesn’t mention a federal ban on abortion and removes references from previous GOP platforms to traditional marriage as being between a man and a woman. It does call for mass deportation for people found to be in the country illegally, harsh anti-trade tariffs, and broad executive powers to remove so-called “radical” policies in academia, the military and U.S. government, the Times reported.
Rahman said the RNC didn’t include a federal ban on abortion “because they know it’s a losing issue for them.”
Trump was scheduled to go on at 7 p.m. On Truth Social, his social media platform, he promised “big crowd and great energy!” The Republican National Convention begins Monday.
“The Biden administration has failed us time and time again. Our country needs Republican leadership now more than ever,” the RNC website said.
Biden, who spoke Tuesday at a NATO summit in Washington, has been seeking to energize his own campaign while resisting all calls to step down as the nominee.
His campaign said it is focused on defeating Trump in November.
“Floridians, along with all Americans, will have even less rights if he takes back the White House,” Rahman said.
