Rick Wilson: 'Mourning in America' ad paralyzed the Trump campaign for days

[denem]

The message "under the leadership of Donald Trump, our country is weaker, and sicker and poorer" was a bullet aimed straight at the heart of MAGA/Keep America Great. Rick is 'concerned' about the president's reaction.



Rick Wilson Has Some Thoughts on Trump’s Reaction to “Mourning in America”

On May 4, the anti-Trump Super PAC the Lincoln Project released a new ad: “Mourning in America.” Riffing off the classic Reagan ad “Morning in America,” the video details Trump’s failings in handling the coronavirus pandemic and questions whether the United States could survive another Trump presidency.

The video blew up, garnering 1.5 million views in two days. And, naturally, it drew the ire of Donald Trump. The President released a tweetstorm targeting the group in the early hours of the morning the next day, describing founding members George Conway (husband of Kellyanne Conway) and Rick Wilson as “deranged” and “crazed,” respectively.

We chatted with Rick Wilson about how the group came up with the video, and what their plans are heading into November.

What does the creative process behind your ads look like? What’s your strategy? How long is the process?

WILSON: We’re very much driven by our numbers and our targeting. We are looking to do persuasion among an identified set of voters in an identified set of swing states. The types of people we’re talking to, they’re the sort of voters who swung against Trump in 2018 in areas like the metro area around Orlando, counties outside of Detroit, and counties around Milwaukee. But we’re also talking to an audience of one. We were able to take an ad we spent $5000 to put on the air and freeze the Trump campaign for two and a half days, where they did nothing else but punch us, lose control of their messaging apparatus, and lost control of their campaign management system.

We have a lot of ideas in the hopper at any given time; there’s probably 15 major concepts we’re working through right now. We try to invest in targeted work that hits with a specific impact. I’d much rather fire off one big hydrogen bomb than 100 firecrackers. And we have a very short timeframe on our process. I think the longest production cycle on one of our ads was six days, and “Mourning in America’s” was a matter of hours.

https://www.washingtonian.com/2020/05/08/rick-wilson-donald-trump-mourning-in-america

[sop]

1. Your next ads should be titled "Carnage in America" and "What Have You Got to Lose?"

[denem]

2. Wilson is a very hard man.

He has spent his life studying what hurts his opponents the most.

[dhol82]

23. We should definitely take lessons from him in what works.

[GoCubsGo]

20. It should be "American Carnage."

As in what Fat Nixon promised to end during his bizarre inaugural address. Or, as Dumbya called it "some weird shit."

This American carnage stops right here and stops right now. We are one nation – and their pain is our pain ...

[mopinko]

38. American Carnage is what you mean, i think.

[sop]

39. "Morning in America"..."Mourning in America"..."Carnage in America" - Just following their pattern.

Or "American Carnage" if you want.

[Blue Owl]

42. K&R

[ecstatic]

3. Love it! Nt

[bucolic_frolic]

4. I applaud what they do and hope to accomplish

but someday these skills, which are a non-racist form of Willie Horton ads, will be turned on us. Like in January 2021.

[denem]

6. Wilson will never get a consulting job with the GOP again.

He has nuked his bridges.

[2naSalit]

32. I'm sure he's not worried about it.

What I do notice here is that he and the others chose country over party.

[denem]

33. If the Lincoln Project 'Never Trumpers' were only going after trump,

I can imagine a degree of reconciliation with the GOP sometime in the distant future. But knocking off vulnerable GOP senators with the aim of giving the Democrats a majority? No way Jose.

"They chose country over party". At one time, this would not have been considered so extraordinary.

[madaboutharry]

8. They are a group of conservatives.

But they will always be against the Trumpers. I think Trumpism isn’t going to let go of its grip on the Republican Party that easily. I think that it will be a long time before they use these tactics against Democrats.

[Eid Ma Clack Shaw]

9. If they get rid of Trump, even if the clock can be rolled back to 2004

and the Bush brand of dirty politics, it would be infinitely better than the unspeakable debauchery of Trumpism.

[live love laugh]

44. Bush lead me to DU he was so bad. He was just more low key. nt

[misanthrope]

48. Bush was a doofus with Daddy issues

His VP was an evil bastard.

[live love laugh]

43. My fears exactly. My motto is still: Never trust a Republican. nt

[rickyhall]

5. Amazing what the truth can do in the hands.

[True Blue American]

11. That is the point here.

Wilson is simply speaking truth in the Ads. But do not forget Wilson is not the only one backing those Ads! First published on Fox News before Trump 2 hour Town Hall the Drew a little over 3 million while 60 Minutes had over 9 million viewers!

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/495980-george-conway-group-knocks-trump-with-new-ad-mourning-in-america

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/big-investors-walmart-heiress-help-fund-anti-trump-super-pac-airing-mourning-in-america-ad-2020-05-05

[jaxexpat]

13. Hey, the truth is "time sensitive".

Who coulda known?

[True Blue American]

15. Yeah, Walmart

Of all places!

[denem]

7. Wilson is the worst sort of assassin.

A face without a frown. A man at peace with his nature.

[madaboutharry]

10. "A man at peace with his nature."

That is a great phrase.

[paleotn]

27. And once this is all mercifully over....

we will go back to hating Wilson as the slimy, Republican enemy. Actually, I miss those days and I bet he does too.

[live love laugh]

45. An assassin always needs a target. nt

[safeinOhio]

12. I'd think if you want that sore to fester even more....

Next one have Obama do the voice.

[dixiechiken1]

14. Oooooooooooohhhhhhh...

That'd do it. Glad you're on our side, safe!

[SammyWinstonJack]

17. DELISH!

[3Hotdogs]

18. Dunno. Those of little information--They couldn't stand Obama.

Is the goal to crank off Trump? That would be quite worthy.

or is it to persuade swing voters?

[misanthrope]

49. I agree

I understand the purpose of irritating Trump but I don't think that method is the way to go.

[raging moderate]

16. "To Live and Let Die" should be one ad.

Trump effectively created his own anti-Trump ad when he visited that factory without a mask but with goggles. I read somewhere that Trump had actually requested the blasting of the song "To Live and Let Die" during that visit. I bet you could create something very effective just by snipping out a few clips, with appropriate statistics.

I believe that Trump has accidentally created a number of these little gems. We could take a page from the WWII American film, "Why We Fight," which spliced together a number of Nazi propaganda films with appropriate information.

[SammyWinstonJack]

21. He did? That's the equivalent of the "I really don't care, do you" jacket.

What a sick bastard he is. 🤬

[Duppers]

35. Excellent idea!! That💣 should blow them up.

That jacket has been underutilized but it's perfect to smear them with.

[kentuck]

19. All the Democrats need is one good ad and run it over and over and over...

This is it !

[MrModerate]

22. To be fair, Trump provides LOTS of source material for these videos...

Making the Lincoln Project's job pretty easy.

[paleotn]

26. He's a walking, talking attack ad...

against himself.

[brer cat]

24. They are doing an outstanding job.

Reminding people of the moron's incompetence while getting under his skin. I hope they keep it up.

[paleotn]

25. And we're just getting started....

If just the daily news is crushing Donnie's hopes of reelection...just wait until the Dem election machine gets going at full steam. No let up. Absolutely no quarter. Bury the bastards. Every single Republican. Destroy them all.

[leftyladyfrommo]

28. Jow about Corruption in the White House next. nt

[BigOleDummy]

29. Man

Now that was a good read. I agree with him 100% too. The rest of the article/interview is very interesting and not too long. No reason for anyone not to read it.... very salient points.

[DeminPennswoods]

30. The big takeaway is that ads have to hit what

regular Americans can relate to in their daily lives.

For ex, when now Sen Casey first ran against Santorum, forget the big policy differences. What hurt Santorum more than most outsiders realize is his kids getting a tuition-free ride to a private school and him blowing off a call to jury duty. Neither was illegal, but everyone sure knew about jury duty and not to blow it off as an inconvenience. We all knew someone who got special "freebies", too.

[misanthrope]

47. That's exactly right

"Put the hay down where the goats can get to it."

[Darwin2019]

31. Try a version of this Paul Ryan ad

[BComplex]

40. That was a good ad.

We need to use it on several fronts against republicans (Mitch McConnell) who want to do away with medicare, and revise the ad to address republican senators (and trump) wanting to do away with Obamacare. (ACA)

[Hotler]

34. Where are the ads from the democratic Super PAC's? Damn, we're getting out played ...

by repugs against tRump.

[intheflow]

36. I'm okay with Republicans eating their own. n/t

[denem]

37. Urgh.

The thought of eating an orange fat ball ...

[BComplex]

41. I always criticize democrats ads. They never hit as hard as they need to.

I hope Rick Wilson is helping us change that.

[Lock him up.]

46. They must focus on the most flippable swing states.

If you're in a solid BIDEN-BLUE state there's no point of spending money there.

[Gothmog]

50. Trump is bad dog food

Link to tweet

?s=20