Over the past year, Donald Trump has repeatedly taken credit for overturning Roe v. Wade, which upended access to abortion across the country. Now the Biden campaign is aiming to make Trump eat those words in a new ad called “Trust,” which is part of a $30 million buy targeting key swing states and urban areas within them.
The spot opens with Trump bragging that he “terminated” Roe, finally accomplishing a goal that conservatives had chased for over half a century.
“Because for 54 years they were trying to get Roe v. Wade terminated—and I did it,” Trump says in the clip, adding, “And I’m proud to have done it.”
After Trump’s opening quote in the ad, Biden jumps in to narrate, telling voters that Trump ran on overturning Roe in 2016, and this year, “He’s running to pass a national ban on a woman’s right to choose.“
Biden then appears, speaking directly to the camera and pledging to “make Roe v. Wade the law of the land again, so women have a federal guarantee to the right to choose.”
“Donald Trump doesn’t trust women,” Biden adds. “I do.”
According to a Biden-Harris campaign memo sent to reporters, the spot will air in battleground states on national cable channels, and on local broadcast TV in key markets, including cities like Milwaukee, Detroit, and Philadelphia, where Democrats need to run up their numbers. The ad campaign also includes a digital push, including in Florida, on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.
For the Biden campaign, the ad is an opportunity to remind voters who have either forgotten or perhaps don’t fully appreciate Trump’s role in ending abortion rights nationwide. For instance, an NBC News poll last year found that 61% of voters disapprove of the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision overturning Roe—including 31% of women who say they voted for Trump in 2020.
The new ad comes in the wake of two Monday rulings from the Florida Supreme Court allowing a statewide ban to go into effect while also giving Floridians the opportunity to vote on an abortion rights ballot measure in November.
The dual rulings super-charged the issue in the Sunshine State, and Team Biden seems keen to capitalize on the momentum by expanding the conversation nationally.
In a statement, Biden-Harris 2024 campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said, “Donald Trump overturning Roe is the reason millions of women across the country cannot access lifesaving health care – and as this ad shows, Trump’s proud of what he’s done.”
