Donald Trump celebrated his March 15 primary wins by shrugging off his remaining Republican rivals. He threatened "riots" if he was denied the nomination at the Republican convention. He declared he was done with Republican debates. And he produced this Instagram video attacking Hillary Clinton.
The low-budget 15-second blast begins with text on the screen, "WHEN IT COMES TO FACING OUR TOUGHEST OPPONENTS, DEMOCRATS HAVE THE PERFECT ANSWER…” broken up by footage of Putin doing Jiu-Jitsu and an ISIS propaganda video.
Donald Trump Shows Hillary Clinton Barking Like a Dog
Then we are treated to a clip of Hillary Clinton barking like a dog. The clip comes from a
Clinton anecdote about an old political ad in which a dog barks whenever an opponent doesn't tell the truth.
Clinton's barks are followed by a clip of Putin giggling sinisterly, then a final tagline: "WE DON"T NEED TO BE A PUNCHLINE!"
Trump Distances Himself From Vladamir Putin
Trump is hoping to neutralize expected attack lines on him. Clinton will surely run many ads of Trump being goofy on the stump to argue he can't be taken seriously on the world stage; Trump wants voters to think the same of her.
Clinton will probably bring up the instances where Trump defended Putin, such as when as he dismissed charges of killing journalists by saying,
"at least he's a leader." Now Trump is putting distance between himself and Putin, and attracting the
ire of the Kremlin.
Trump is trying to turn weaknesses into strengths, but he has to worry that such tactics will backfire, and only serve to remind voters of his own weaknesses.