More on the Ad That Changed Everything and Trump's Extremely Timely Reminder That Twitter Isn't Real Life

Earlier, in a piece on the VIP side, my colleague Ward Clark hit the nail on the head (as usual) in describing how Democrats are still not getting that issues related to gender identity politics and "transgender rights" are costing them elections.

Though a few of them understand it, like Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA), who landed in hot water after stating some uncomfortable truths about the topic, most of them prefer to stick their heads in the sand because being woke is more important to them than being right.

Though it's not surprising, it's fascinating to watch play out considering what we know about the viral Trump ad that both the Harris campaign and the Trump campaign have acknowledged changed the trajectory of the presidential race at a crucial time, as we previously reported:

As it turns out, their strategy to emphasize masculinity, coupled with ads that included warnings about Harris' support for trans rights - including her prior push to pay for transgender surgeries in the California prison system with taxpayer money, ended up paying off big time with the exact voters he needed down the finish line.
It moved not just those younger male voters in his direction but more suburban women voters, too, a twofer that paid big dividends on Election Day.

Here's that ad for those who missed it:

Kamala is for they/them.

President Trump is for you. pic.twitter.com/Yk1KBgMH4f
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) September 20, 2024

Though the election was a week ago, people are still talking about that ad and how much traction it got in the aftermath of its release:

Democrats are also starting to confront something uncomfortable: Those ads highlighting Harris’s past support for taxpayer-funded transgender prison surgeries? They were a killer. For proof, just look at the 538 chart tracking Harris’s favorable ratings, which were rising until October 1, when she was high on vibes, and then started to sink the very week Trump and his MAGA allies started putting serious money behind those trans ads, which were absolutely inescapable on TV and streaming in the closing weeks. “I talked to so many people in the barbershop who asked about that ad,” [Richmond Democrat Mayor Levar] Stoney told me. “I get that it can be difficult to talk about those issues, but there was room for the campaign to respond to them. Why didn’t they? Because once you don’t respond, people start to believe it’s true.”

The ad was true though, as we documented back in mid-September after the Trump/Harris debate, where Trump was widely mocked on Twitter by journos and Democrat movers and shakers alike who were incredulous over the claim and thought it made him look like a fruitcake. Amazingly, it was CNN of all places that first broke that story - just two days before the debate.

To make a long story short, it was and remains a timely reminder from Trump that Twitter is (thankfully) not real life. Had the campaign just gone off the reactions of their unhinged critics on social media and panned the idea of running the ad they eventually did, who knows what would have happened on Election Day?

As it turns out, the people who laughed the most over Trump's debate comments on the issue aren't laughing anymore. And that, our dear readers, is the best kind of revenge of all.