Trump supposedly has "regret" about the many awful things he's said, but his xenophobic, anti-immigrant hate speech isn't one of them. In his first campaign-funded ad of the general election, he wants people to know that Hillary Clinton is helping refugees and immigrants stream into the country, putting Americans at physical risk. In short, she's putting your life on the line. Matthew Yglesias writes:
It’s a pretty simple proposition — Hillary Clinton will let foreigners kill you and Donald Trump won’t.
Now, of course it wouldn’t be the Trump campaign without some questionable accuracy. For example, when describing how Hillary Clinton will leave our "border open" the ad shows this footage of a train full of menacing stowaways presumably sneaking across our unguarded border. [...]
The important thing to note here, however, is what Trump is not arguing. He is not making an economic-based argument that immigrants will drive down wages [...] Instead, the anxiety being targeted here is anxiety about the physical threat posed by foreigners — precisely the sentiment of fear that has driven Trumpism from the beginning.
It’s hard to see how any of this expands his voting pool. Watch the ad below.
The initial ad buy is modest, btw, NBC writes: “The $4 million purchase in four states—Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania—puts Trump on the airwaves but is a fraction of the $61 million spent by Hillary Clinton's campaign. The ads will run from August 19-29.”