This is how bad Trump's photo op backfired
Usually when people refer to politicians “writing their own attack ads,” it’s in reference to something the politician has said that’s dumb or ill-phrased. Rarely is it applied to staged photo ops.
President Trump’s photo op with a Bible in front of St. John's Episcopal Church in June was reportedly meant as a show of strength following news reports he was taken to the White House bunker. It’s now a major weakness. In the past month and a half, that moment, as well as the tear gas and force used so it could happen, have become staples of attack ads against him.
I went through ads on YouTube for three accounts — former Vice President Biden’s campaign, the progressive group Priorities USA, and the conservative anti-Trump group Republican Voters Against Trump — and found 14 ads that included footage from the photo op. Here’s what I found:
Joe Biden
In “Build the Future,” it’s shown while Biden says in a voiceover, “I’ll seek to heal the racial wounds that have long plagued our country, not use them for political gain” and following footage of law enforcement clearing the area.
In “Deer in the Headlights Pt. 2” it’s shown after a narrator talks about Trump being taken to the White House bunker.
In the Spanish-language “Cacerolazo,” the image is shown briefly during a voiceover of Trump saying, “When somebody’s the president of the United States, the authority is total.”
In “That’s a President,” it’s shown as a narrator says, “This job is about protecting Americans, not tear-gassing them for a photo op.”
In “Taught Me,” it’s shown as a narrator says, “Today, people are hurting, scared, and angry, but to heal this kind of suffering doesn’t take brute force.”
Priorities USA
In “Enough,” it’s shown during a voiceover of Trump saying, “I have the right to do whatever I want as president.”
In “Do The Work,” it’s shown after footage of protesters being gassed with a voiceover of Biden saying, “He exercises no leadership.”
In “Crisis,” there’s a shot of Trump without the Bible standing in front of a boarded-up doorway to the church as a narrator says Trump keeps fanning the flames.
In “Divides,” it’s shown after footage of protesters being gassed and with the text “Donald Trump is failing America.”
In the Spanish-language “Total” it’s shown as part of a montage of Latin American authoritarians include Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro.
In the English-language “Total,” it’s also shown as part of a montage of Latin American authoritarians with a narrator who says, “We’ve seen this before. We know how it ends.”
Republican Voters Against Trump
In “Shining City on a Hill,” it’s shown during a voiceover of Ronald Reagan’s speech the night before Election Day 1980 when he said, “let us resolve they will say of our day and our generation that we did keep faith with our God.”
In “Trump is Using Us,” it’s shown as a Republican named Pat says, “This president is using us. Christians have to resist being used to justify things that Jesus would never justify.”
In “America’s Sad Birthday,” it’s shown very briefly during a quick-cut montage of protests and police with audio of a woman singing “Happy Birthday.”
Obviously, Trump critics find this moment especially damning (and apparently so does the Trump campaign; it doesn’t appear in any of their digital ads now running on Facebook, Instagram, Google, or YouTube).
It’s used in ads to portray Trump as autocratic, divisive, and insincere. For a candidate well aware of his public image, this photo op backfired in a major way.