President Donald Trump’s campaign moved swiftly last month to disavow a sizable political ad campaign that sought to build a super PAC’s email list under the banner of the president’s re-election.
The Trump Victory Fund spent more than $10,000 on about 750 Facebook ads last month attacking prominent Democrats such as Rep. Ilhan Omar (MN), Sen. Chuck Schumer (NY), and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro, now a presidential candidate. The ads directed readers to a petition page where visitors were prompted to provide their names, email addresses, and phone numbers.
The group behind the ads was actually a super PAC called C3 PAC. And within just a few weeks of the commencement of the ad campaign, according to a source familiar with the situation, the Trump campaign reached out to the group and requested that they stop branding themselves as a Trump-aligned organization. The Trump Victory Fund Facebook page has since been deleted entirely.