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Trump Campaign Uses Footage From Poland, South Africa in ‘American Dream’ Thanksgiving Ad

The president’s 2020 campaign used Americana imagery that wasn’t American-made.

President Donald Trump’s campaign released a Thanksgiving-themed ad earlier this week celebrating America’s inherent greatness. But some of the video’s Americana imagery was taken from foreign countries.

The 43-second video displayed various, traditionally patriotic scenes: families gathering in the kitchen, a kid looking into a telescope, a game of catch, and steelworkers leaving a steel mill. However, two of those vignettes were filmed in, respectively, Poland and South Africa.

The ad, posted on Twitter Monday, features a narrator touting the “American dream” while the clips play and emotional orchestral music swells in the background. It then pivots to footage of Trump greeting and speaking to troops during his Thanksgiving visit to Afghanistan.

According to Getty Images, the shot of steelworkers leaving the steel mill in the advertisement originated from Poland. The website also says the clip showing a woman and a girl making sweets in a kitchen was filmed in South Africa. Both clips were available for purchase through Getty for as low as $175. The foreign origin of the clips were first flagged by super PAC American Bridge.

The Trump campaign did not return a request for comment.

This isn’t the first time Trump’s 2020 campaign has used foreign images in their ads. The campaign was caught using images of foreign stock footage models in Facebook and Google ads earlier this year, and making it look like testimonials from Americans. In addition, one of Trump’s 2016 campaign ads used footage of migrants in Morocco in an ad promoting the building of a wall along the Mexico border. At the time, the campaign told Politico the use of the Morocco footage was “intentional.”

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Julia ArcigaReporter

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