The Mexican Border Depicted In Donald Trump’s First Campaign Ad Is Actually Morocco

Remember that nifty lil’ first campaign ad Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump released on Monday? Not only does it repeat the Donald’s “greatest hits,” but it also lies about one of its major points. In the advertisement’s final chunk about immigration, the narrator claims Trump will “stop illegal immigration by building a wall on our southern border that Mexico will pay for.” When “southern border” hits, this cues footage of people running towards a border fence of some kind.

The thing is, this footage wasn’t taken from Mexico. According to PolitiFact, it was actually taken from Morocco in northern Africa.

PolitiFact was able to trace the footage back to the Italian television network RepubblicaTV. On May 3, 2014, the network posted footage of Moroccans crossing the border into Melilla, one of two enclaves on the Moroccan coast that are held by Spain. Migrants who cross the border there are essentially entering territory held by a European Union nation, even though they are still on the African continent.

Soon after the ad was fact-checked, the Trump campaign released a statement admitting that the footage wasn’t taken on the U.S./Mexico border:

Meanwhile, a Trump campaign manager named Corey Lewandowski relayed the statement’s message to NBC News with more… force:

Luckily for us lay-folks, the media’s army of Twitter users (and a few jokers here and there) decided to offer the Trump campaign a few alternative bits of border footage to use in future ads. These included everything from The Lord of the Rings:

To Jurassic Park:

Even the problematic World War Z was able to make an appearance:

As did former Miss South Carolina Teen USA and Miss Teen USA winner, Caitlin Upton:

If this ad doesn’t make Trump’s campaign explode all over these 48 great continental United States of America, I don’t know what will! At least the people of Morocco will know the Donald’s name now.

(Via PolitiFact)

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