Dave Goldiner, New York Daily News
Thu, September 8, 2022
Former President Donald Trump hit back at Fox News and the Lincoln Project after the #NeverTrump group got under his skin with an ad that aired at his golf resort in New Jersey.
Deriding the GOP group as “sleaze,” Trump vowed to sue Fox for approving the ads for broadcast.
“The (Lincoln Project) should not be allowed to “false advertise,” and Fox News should not allow it to happen,” Trump wrote on his social media site. “See you all in Court!!!”
Lincoln Project founder Rick Wilson wasted little time chortling about Trump’s hissy fit.
“Oh, Donald. I’ve got a 10am ET meeting, but I’ll be back to scourge you in a bit,“ Wilson tweeted.
“Trump’s threat to sue the Lincoln Project today is like Trump himself; impotent, flabby, and pathetic,” Wilson added in an interview with Mediaite.
Trump was apparently rattled by the ad, entitled Sucker. It accuses the former president of fleecing his loyal supporters to line his own pockets.
The hard-hitting piece warns Trump’s MAGA backers that he is less interested in winning back the White House than in “propping up his failing business empire” with hundreds of millions in donations.
“It was a sucker’s game all along,” the ad intones. “And you know who the sucker is? It’s you.”
Trump claimed that Fox has turned against him, citing its decision to run the ad. He blames former House Speaker Paul Ryan, a GOP rival and member of the Fox News board.
“The Paul Ryun run Fox only has high standards for “Trump” ads, but not for anyone else,” Trump wrote, misspelling Ryan’s name.
It’s not the first time the Lincoln Project has succeeded in rattling Trump or his family.
In another recent ad, the group of Republican media gurus warned Trump that someone inside his inner circle, or perhaps even a relative, must’ve tipped off the feds about the top-secret documents he stashed at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
“Someone who you trusted betrayed you,” the ad states. “Now you’re the first president to have his home raided by the FBI.”
Lincoln Project doubles down goading
Donald Trump after fiery response to his
lawsuit threat
The Lincoln Project has doubled down on its fiery response to a lawsuit threat from Donald Trump, mocking the former president as a "cuck".
The pugnacious anti-Trump fundraising group had previously dared Mr Trump to make good on his promise to sue over its latest campaign advert, which accused him of funneling campaign money into his own pockets and referred to his supporters as "suckers".
Mr Trump blasted the Project on his personal social network Truth Social early on Thursday morning, calling them "perverts and lowlifes" and claiming he would sue them for "false advertising".
After no more details were forthcoming, Lincoln Project co-founder Rick Wilson said on Friday: "Donald Trump hasn’t 'truthed' for 20 hours. Cuck."
Since then Mr Trump has posted several more "truths", but none concerning the advert.
The Lincoln Project was founded by current and former Republicans who opposed Mr Trump's re-election campaign, and has become well-known for picking personal fights with the mercurial real estate tycoon.
"Cuck", literally short for "cuckold", is a crude sexual insult with origins in far right online communities, which broke into the mainstream in 2015 during Mr Trump's initial campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.
The term – and its variant "cuckservative" – was gleefully embraced by Breitbart News under its then executive chairman Steve Bannon, who later joined Mr Trump's team and reportedly applied the word to his White House colleague Jared Kushner.
In his previous message to Mr Trump on Thursday morning, Mr Wilson said: “Go for it, b****! Come at me. I can’t wait. We’re delighted by the thought...
"You won't do it, because you are, in fact, as I said previously, completely impotent. Just ask [Mr Trump's wife] Melania."
Mr Trump's "perverts" accusation may have been a reference to Lincoln Project co-founder John Weaver, who was accused of sending unsolicited sexual messages to numerous young men. Mr Weaver apologised for "inappropriate" behaviour and resigned from the Project.
Analysis by USA Today has found that Mr Trump frequently threatens lawsuits but rarely follows through when the threat concerns defamation against him.
Donald Trump Threatens To Sue Fox News Over Ad That Calls His Supporters 'Suckers'
Donald Trump threatened Fox News on Thursday, and it wasn’t with a good time.
The former president announced on his reportedly financially challengedTruth Social platform that he is considering suing the news network for false advertising after an insulting ad created by The Lincoln Project aired on Fox News in one local market — where Trump owns a golf course. The ad was not bought through Fox News and did not air nationally.
The ad is titled “Sucker,” and it basically explains to MAGA Republicans why they are suckers for believing basically anything Trump tells them:
“Dear MAGA, we have some bad news. No, not that he lost. Not that your little coup attempt failed and its planners and the attackers are going to jail. No. The really bad news is why Trump told you he lost. Why he set it up way before the 2020 election. It wasn’t voter fraud but it was fraud.
“Trump told you the election was stolen ripped you off, to sucker you, to take your hard-earned money and shovel it into his pockets. He spent it on himself not to take back the White House.
“It was the biggest scam in political history. Every dollar you sent him paid to keep his shady business empire and lavish lifestyle going. It was a sucker game all along. And you know who the sucker is? You.”
The ad copy may address “MAGA Republicans,” but The Lincoln Project intentionally targets Trump, purchasing local ad time on Fox News in Bedminster, New Jersey, where the former president spends the warmer winter months, according to Mediaite.
The commercial was designed specifically to piss off Trump, and it apparently succeeded based on the rant he unleashed Wednesday morning on Truth Social:
“The Perverts and Lowlifes of the Lincoln Project are back on, where else, Fox News. I thought they ran away to the asylum after their last catastrophic campaign, with charges made against them that were big time sleaze, and me getting many millions more votes in 2020 than I got in 2016. The Paul Ryun run Fox only has high standards for “Trump” ads, but not for anyone else. The Perverts should not be allowed to “false advertise,” and Fox News should not allow it to happen. See you all in Court!!!”
Donald Trump threatened to sue Fox News for broadcasting an ad that was critical of him. (Photo: Truth Social)
It should be noted that Trump notoriously threatens lawsuits but rarely files them ― probably because the discovery process could force him to answer embarrassing questions under oath.
That and the First Amendment protections of political speech are probably why Lincoln Project co-founder Rick Wilson, a former Republican strategist, didn’t seem too worried about the threat.
“In 2020, The Lincoln Project took up a long-term free lease in Trump’s brain. His threat to sue the Lincoln Project today is like Trump himself; impotent, flabby, and pathetic,” he told Mediaite.
Wilson said he was “delighted” by the chance of a lawsuit and released a Twitter video in which he bluntly told Trump to “go for it.”
“Go for it. Go for it, bitch. Come at me. I can’t wait,” he taunted. “Do it. Do it. I double dog dare you.”
Looks like Twitter users appreciated the ad more than Trump.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
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