Trump's 'horror movie' attack ads are backfiring with voters in Pennsylvania: analyst

Former President Donald Trump has been slamming a crucial battleground state with "horror movie" attack ads that could butcher the Republican's presidential nominee's chances of making it to the White House, a local political analyst said Monday

Salon's Amanda Marcotte reported her home state of Pennsylvania has been subjected to "ongoing psychic damage" inflicted by attack ads that threaten violence, cast Vice President Kamala Harris as a sadistic movie villain and trans people as the enemy.

"Every Trump spot is maximum-volume bile," Marcotte wrote. "It's gross, but it's also confusing...Most voters hate these ads."

Marcotte argued Trump's decision to wrap his campaign with anti-trans rhetoric was morally irresponsible and politically inept — despite how "cute" his staff may find the tagline "Kamala is for they/them, Trump is for you."

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Why?

Said Marcotte, "It affects you less than a moth's fart in China."

Anti-trans messaging has failed to move the needle for Republicans in past elections, as was found in a recent study from the progressive think tank Data For Progress that calls out Trump by name.

The analysis notes Trump has spent tens of millions of dollars on transgender attack ads researchers consistently found left voters frustrated and upset.

"Despite the presence of more than $65 million in anti-transgender television ads ahead of the November election," the report found, "approximately 3 in 4 voters across party lines think transgender people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect."

Eighty percent of voters, both Democrats and Republicans, urged politicians to stop focusing on transgender issues, according to the report.

Nearly 60 percent of Independents and more than 40 percent of Republicans told researchers "Republican candidates using anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric as part of their campaigns is sad and shameful.”

According to Marcotte, Trump's decision to double-down on such messaging by concluding his campaign with it suggests he's prioritizing gut impulse over proven tactics — and swing state voters will suffer for it.

"That mentality breeds paranoia, alienation, and fighting between people who otherwise would be fine to live peacefully as neighbors, even friends," Marcotte concluded.

"For people told to hate each other for irrational reasons, no good comes from it — just stress and pointless anger."