President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign has been using stock video footage of people purporting to be Trump supporters in its Facebook ads to prove how Trump’s popularity is “higher than ever.”
Despite being edited with voiceovers singing Trump’s praises, “Tracey from Florida,” “Thomas from Washington,” and “AJ from Texas” can all be found on istockphoto.com–and for just $170, you too can own footage of Thomas, aka “Bearded and tattooed hipster coffee shop owner posing.”
“President Trump is doing a great job,” a female voiceover gushes over footage of “Tracey.” “I could not ask for a better President of the United States of America.”
For a few seconds, minuscule faded text appears in the bottom left of the videos that says “ACTUAL TESTIMONIAL. ACTOR PORTRAYAL.”
Journalist Judd Legum first flagged the fake footage last week.
Ironically, the videos of these “supporters” are captioned with Trump’s rant against “the constant stream of lies from the FAKE NEWS media” about his unpopularity.
