American Bridge, a liberal super PAC, is launching a series of digital ads criticizing President Trump’s recent comments indicating he would be open to cutting entitlement programs in the future.
Starting Friday, the digital ads will run in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — all key battleground states that Trump won in 2016.
“Donald Trump made it clear this week that he’d put Medicare and Social Security on the chopping block, jeopardizing the livelihoods of countless seniors,” Shripal Shah, the vice president of American Bridge, said in a statement.
“This raises the stakes even higher for hard-working Americans, and why we’re going to remind them that Donald Trump’s attacks on these critical, hard-earned benefits are a complete betrayal of the very people he promised to help,” he added.
Trump said on Wednesday during an interview with CNBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that he would “take a look at” rolling back entitlements “at the right time.”
Democrats were quick to lambast the president over his comment.
“The president promised that unlike other Republicans, he wouldn’t touch Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare,” said Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.).
“He’s already broken that promise and gone after Medicare. Now it looks like Social Security is in the president’s crosshairs as well,” Schumer added.
Trump sought to assure supporters on Thursday that he would protect certain social services, tweeting: “Democrats are going to destroy your Social Security. I have totally left it alone, as promised, and will save it!”
Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania are crucial for Democrats if they want to take back the White House in November. If the Electoral College stayed exactly the same in 2020 from the last election, but Democrats were able to win back these three states, then they’d also win back the presidency.
This latest salvo of attack ads is part of a $50 million push that the super PAC started in September. The group’s goal is to flip rural working-class voters who voted for Trump in 2016 in the three Upper Midwest states and Florida.