Trump 'eats burned steak' and 'cheats at golf', new Bloomberg-funded billboard says

Presidential hopeful Mike Bloomberg is moving offline for his latest attacks against President Donald Trump.

The former New York City mayor’s campaign has begun hanging billboards in Phoenix and Las Vegas lampooning Mr Trump, according to CBS News.

The billboards are located in high traffic areas near one of Mr Trump’s hotel properties on the Vegas Strip and also along potential presidential motorcade routes.

Mr Trump was holding a rally in Las Vegas on Friday afternoon.

The messaging on the billboards takes aim at Mr Trump’s points of pride; his wall, his golf, his business acumen and his class.

One billboard reads “Donald Trump cheats at golf” and, just below that “Mike Bloomberg doesn’t.” Another bears the text “Donald Trump eats burnt steak,” further proclaiming that “Mike Bloomberg likes his medium rare.”

The billboards are the latest in Mr Bloomberg’s advertising blitz which he hopes will help him overtake his opponents in the Democratic primary. According to the campaign’s second FEC filing, his campaign reported spending more than $460m since he entered the race.

Kantar/CMAG, an ad tracking service, estimates the campaign has spent more than $415m in advertising across TV, digital and radio mediums.

Mr Bloomberg’s campaign has been quick to try to move past what many critics consider the candidate’s abysmal debate debut in Nevada on Wednesday evening. On Thursday, his campaign circulated a doctored video attempting to make Mr Bloomberg look good.

Senator Elizabeth Warren, who is being celebrated by her supporters for forcefully criticising Mr Bloomberg over his use of non-disclosure agreements to silence women who have made harassment allegations against him, continued her attacks on the billionaire following the debate. She told supporters on Thursday that she was tired of “billionaires who don’t play by the rules” and during a CNN town hall on Thursday said she had drafted a document that Mr Bloomberg could use to release women from their NDA’s without risking litigation. It would allow women to speak freely about their experiences with Mr Bloomberg without having to worry about retaliation.

“So I used to teach contract law. And I thought I would make this easy. I wrote up a release and covenant not to sue. And all that mayor Bloomberg has to do is download it. I’ll text it. Sign it, and then the women and men will be free to speak and tell their own stories,” she said.

Though Ms Warren has garnered the most attention for her attacks against the candidate, Mr Bloomberg’s campaign still seems focused on attacking Mr Trump and Democratic frontrunner Bernie Sanders.

Mr Bloomberg suggested that Mr Sanders only appealed to “a small base” and issued a memo ahead of the Democratic debate on Wednesday calling on former Vice President Joe Biden, former South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg and Senator Amy Klobuchar to drop out of the race to avoid fracturing the centrist Democrat vote and assuring a victory for Mr Sanders.

All of the candidates mentioned took exception to Mr Bloomberg’s call.

Mr Sanders has taken Mr Bloomberg’s attacks in his stride. In an interview with 60 Minutes, he told Anderson Cooper that he was surprised by Mr Bloomberg’s lacklustre performance, and said Mr Trump would “chew him up and spit him out.”

While Mr Sanders wouldn’t say whether he was personally worried about Mr Bloomberg’s challenge, he did say he was worried about Mr Bloomberg’s use of his personal wealth to try to buy influence and power.

“We’ve never seen anything like this in American history, and I just think the American people will rebel against this kind of oligarchic movement,” he said. “We are a democracy, one person, one vote, not a guy worth $60bn buying an election.”