Donald Trump is “utilizing a political action committee called ‘Build America’s Future,’ which has received over $100 million from Elon Musk,” reports Ben Meiselas of MeidasTouch, asserting that the Musk-backed PAC “created a shell group called ‘Progress 2028’ to be like the liberal version of Project 2025.”
What’s the news there? Progress 2028 isn’t a liberal version of anything — it’s a fictional operation claiming to support Kamala Harris while distorting her positions, portraying her as a fringe candidate pushing a “radical” agenda.
The trick is that instead of mailers where the GOP undisguisedly takes aim at Harris’s positions, the group characterizes its distorted content as positions Harris owns and is proud to promote.
It’s a trick that has Musk and Trump virtually dressing up in Kamala Harris drag, and practicing a misleading ventriloquism.
The public information site OpenSecrets, which tracks political spending, reports “Building America’s Future registered to use Progress 2028 as a fictitious name on Sept. 23 and the website was created three days later.” The first item on that website reads: Empowering Undocumented Immigrants, Building Our Future.
Meiselas, a reporter, pundit and lawyer, contends the tactic is “as dirty as it gets, and in my opinion, it is illegal.” In the video below, he reveals some of the Progress 2028 content being shipped out to voters in swing states.
“Let’s get ready,” says one mailer, “for Kamala Harris’s bold progressive agenda,” which it purports to support. One promise made is that Harris will “remove barriers for undocumented immigrants” — a position Harris does not hold and which is anathema to many swing voters.
Meiselas: If you’re like me, you don’t like getting scammed, conned, or played. And Donald Trump is going around the country scamming, conning, playing, and grifting people over and over again. The latest scam that’s been uncovered is that Donald Trump, through these… pic.twitter.com/yr9jclQ6Rz
— Acyn (@Acyn) October 18, 2024
Meiselas says in simple terms that the artificial pro-Harris content is meant “to scare away voters.”
The practice is designed to deceive, yet there is little evidence for Meiselas’s contention that the practice is illegal. The First Amendment offers powerful protections for speech of almost any kind, and it is not hard to mislead while avoiding breaking the law. It’s also not a new strategy, even if the amount of money being spent far exceeds previous efforts at this kind of virtual cross-dressing.
As one jaded observer writes, practicing a cynic’s bothsidesism: “Both sides have used similar tactics for years.”
Are you new to politics? Both sides have used similar tactics for years.
— Syntax4Kant (@Syntax4Kant) October 18, 2024