‘That’s why we did it’: Lincoln Project takes victory lap after Pence video rattles Trump

The Lincoln Project appears to be enjoying the apparent reaction its video provoked in President Donald Trump – after reports emerged that the president had turned on Mike Pence following the video’s release.

Lincoln Project co-founder Reed Galen told The Independent that the president's response reported in Axios this week was the response they were expecting, and indeed hoping for.

"Given that we dropped it a couple of weeks ago, it had kind of been off traffic, usually if you're going to get a reaction like that from him it will be more immediate because he's such an impulsive guy – but that's the reason we did it," Mr Galen said.

"Trump is the most transparent president to maybe ever occupy the White House. He is not some grand planner, he is not some grand strategist. Everything that he feels is on display whether or not it is positive, negative, indifferent. He either says it himself on Twitter, or he says it to someone in the White House who runs to a member of the media."

The video, titled "Pence", claims the vice president is "backing away" from Trump. And, according to sources who spoke to Axios, the video has had quite an impact on Trump since its release on 8 December, with the president reportedly believing Mr Pence is not fighting hard enough for him.

If the latest video drives a wedge between the president and his VP, it would be one of the Lincoln Project's biggest scalps since former campaign manager Brad Parscale was fired. The group has claimed this was, at least in part, due to their long-running campaign to antagonise the relationship between Mr Parscale and Mr Trump..

Or, as the Lincoln Project put it on Twitter: "Oops, we did it again…"

Co-founders Rick Wilson and George Conway also basked in the apparent win.

The Lincoln Projected targeted the “Pence” ad to run in the three to four hours when they had a good idea of what the president would be watching and where, either Fox & Friends, Hannity and Tucker Carlson in DC, Palm Beach or New Jersey.

"He does the same thing every day. He might be president of the United States but he's a homebody, he doesn't really like to travel. Rarely spends the night anywhere other than property that he owns, we know where all those places are," Mr Galen said.

"He's either in Washington DC at the White House, in New Jersey, in Mar-a-Lago, maybe Doral, but most likely in Florida in Palm Beach. And so we broadcast news in those places all the time because we knew even if he wasn't staying there people in those areas were going to tell him: 'Oh, by the way, those guys are still doing that stuff'".

“That stuff”, as the video pointed out, is continuing until Mr Pence certifies Joe Biden's presidency on 6 January, part of his Constitutional duty and a final so-called betrayal of loyalty.

"We know that he is sitting in front of his television in his residence every night with his remote in one hand, and his phone in the other, going crazy when he saw our ads," Mr Galen said.

"We knew exactly where he was going to be and when he was going to be there."