WASHINGTON — Kamala Harris’ campaign will launch a television ad Thursday aimed at linking the three words the vice president has used to describe Donald Trump lately — unhinged, unstable and unchecked — with the policy implications voters might see if the former president returns to office.
The 30-second spot, which is set to air across battleground states, argues that Trump would “ignore all checks that rein in a president’s power,” according to details first shared with NBC News. It names Project 2025, the conservative blueprint that the GOP nominee has tried to distance himself from following criticism. Democrats have succeeded in making the proposal, which was crafted by a right-wing think tank, unpopular, according to polling.
The Harris campaign has increasingly sought to link Trump’s recent behavior and comments with questions about his mental acuity and his refusal to release recent medical records.
“One has to ask, what is Donald Trump trying to hide? What is his staff and his team trying to keep from you?” Harris said in a media interview this week after her White House doctor shared a letter saying she is in “excellent health.”
The Trump campaign points to the fact that a doctor issued a statement about his health a year ago, though it lacked certain specific details. Trump has provided no medical records. Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, a physician who treated Trump when he was president, has also released a letter about his injury during a failed assassination attempt.
The new Harris ad, titled “Total Power,” is part of the campaign’s push to convince voters Trump is “unfit” for office through a broad strategy of using his own words and actions, including his recent comments about an “enemy from within” in discussing his critics and detractors.
On Monday, for the first time at one of her rallies, Harris played a montage of Trump’s words on the subject, calling him “increasingly unstable and unhinged.”
Harris campaign officials have internal research demonstrating that when it portrays Trump as “unstable” in contrast to Harris, it is an effective messaging tool for the persuadable voters they are trying to reach most urgently in the final days of the race.
The ad claims that a Trump presidency would result in “higher costs on groceries, cuts to Social Security and Medicare, more tax breaks for billionaires and a national abortion ban, putting women’s health at risk.”
It concludes: “A second Trump term: more unhinged, more unstable and unchecked.” The buy is part of the Democratic campaign’s ongoing $370 million paid media blitz in the closing stretch of the election.
Trump’s campaign responded to the ad by saying he is a “plain speaker” who talks about issues like the economy and immigration.
“Unhinged is the way to describe Kamala Harris throwing open our borders to unvetted criminals putting the safety of Americans at risk,” said Brian Hughes, a senior adviser to Trump. “Unhinged is her support for economic policy that has made life for Americans unaffordable and trade policy that favors foreign workers over America’s working men and women.”
The Harris campaign debuted a digital ad this month slamming GOP vice presidential nominee JD Vance as “extremist” and warning he “could be a heartbeat away” from the presidency if Trump wins, the first time the Democratic ticket has gone after Trump for his age in paid media.
