Donald Trump Rages at Republicans Campaigning Against Him

Donald Trump has lashed out at opponents that have come from his own party as critical ads of him created by the Lincoln Project ran on Fox News.

The former president railed against the political action committee (PAC) founded by moderate Republicans on his media platform Truth Social late Monday night. He said the group was made up of "perverts and losers" and also made an apparently false claim that the Lincoln Project "and others" were using artificial intelligence (AI) in creating their ads despite the video featuring a number of his well-known gaffes.

"The perverts and losers at the failed and once disbanded Lincoln Project, and others, are using A.I.(Artificial Intelligence) in their Fake television commercials in order to make me look as bad and pathetic as Crooked Joe Biden, not an easy thing to do," Trump said. "FoxNews shouldn't run these ads, just as low ratings CNN & MSDNC will not, under any circumstances, run negative ads on Biden or the Democrats." This suggests that the 45th president saw the ad on Fox News, though that is not confirmed.

Newsweek approached Fox News and The Lincoln Project for comment.

The Lincoln Project was founded in 2019 by former Republican strategists, according to its website. This includes George Conway, who in March announced his divorce from former senior counselor to the president, Kellyanne Conway, as well as Steve Schmidt, veteran Republican strategist and former adviser to the late John McCain. The group's stated aim is to "protect the American Republic from Donald Trump" and his supporters.

Trump remains the clear favorite among likely voters in the Republican Party to become the candidate for the 2024 presidential election. Polling average from analysis website FiveThirtyEight shows that as of Monday, Trump had a 45.3-point lead over his nearest rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

One of the recent ads distributed by the Lincoln Project mocked Trump including the time he visited wildlife damage in California in 2018 in the town of Paradise. "We just left Pleasure," he told reporters at the time, before he was corrected.

Also in the ad was the time Trump having difficulting pronouncing the word "anonymous" at a rally in Billings, Montana, in 2018. The ad titled "Feeble" went on to suggest Trump displayed a number of insecurities concerning President Joe Biden.

"Face it Donald, you're just projecting when you call Joe Biden old," the ad's narration says. He's stronger than you, fitter than you, smarter than you, a better man and a better president... anyone can see it."

It continued: "When you lay there at night alone, you know we're right. You're falling apart Donald, breaking down. Right in front of our eyes."

The use of AI in political ads remains a controversial subject. The Republican National Committee (RNC) released an ad generated entirely by AI in April, in reaction to the news of Biden's reelection campaign. In it, fake pictures of what an American under a second Biden presidential term would supposedly look like were used, including military patrols on the streets. The RNC ad did include a disclaimer.

In November, Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram said it would require political ads appearing on its platform to disclose to users if AI was used.

States are legislating in an attempt to play catch-up to the burgeoning development of AI. The likes of California, Washington and Texas have all introduced laws to tackle the use of deepfakes—digitally manipulated media used to depict a person in a fake scenario—while a new bill in Michigan expected to be signed into law soon by Governor Gretchen Whitmer will require ads to disclose if they are AI-generated.