Democrats will target Donald Trump’s first full-scale campaign rally since his criminal trial, with billboards labeling him a “convicted white-collar liar.”
The ad, paid for by the Democratic National Committee (DNC), is the latest sign that the party is preparing to capitalize more aggressively on last month’s guilty verdicts in New York.
“Trump is a disaster for Nevada’s economy,” reads the billboard, which will be displayed in Las Vegas, where Trump will speak on Sunday. “Now he’s back. A convicted white-collar hustler. Doting on billionaires and leaving workers behind.
A Manhattan jury found Trump guilty of all 34 counts of falsifying business records in a hush-money criminal trial, making him the first former U.S. president to be convicted of a felony. Judge Juan Merchan scheduled a sentencing hearing for July 11.
But Democrats have been unsure about how far to convey the verdict to voters in this year’s presidential campaign. Some worry it could fuel a narrative that the trial is politically motivated and backfire by drawing sympathy for the presumptive Republican nominee.
This week, however, there were signs of a more direct approach. At a campaign reception in Greenwich, Connecticut, on Monday, Joe Biden called his opponent a “convicted felon.”
Advertising billboards in Las Vegas seek to tie Trump’s criminal record to his financial record, painting him as a “white-collar hustler” who exploited Nevada’s working class during his presidency. The phrase also echoes the “Crooked Hillary” label that was effective against Trump during the 2016 campaign.
“Donald Trump returns to Nevada this weekend for the first time as a convicted felon, and voters will remember the con man who kept Nevada workers in the dark,” said Democratic National Committee spokesperson Stephanie Justice. The president’s tenure has been troubled.
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“After promising to take care of Nevada’s middle class, he perpetrated a tax scam that made the super-rich and corporations even richer on the backs of working families, repeatedly attacked unions, and lost tens of thousands of jobs in Nevada. Stand by and watch.
Justice added: “Now he’s promising tax subsidies to his billionaire donors instead of putting the interests of Nevada workers first. Nevada voters know Trump is too corrupt and unfit for office. And will reject him again in 2024.
The political impact of Trump’s conviction remains uncertain, but a post-conviction analysis of nearly 2,000 voters who previously participated in the New York Times/Siena College survey found that Trump’s lead over Biden narrowed from 3 percentage points to only 1 percentage point.
