New ad from George Conway’s ‘Psycho PAC’ looks to trigger Trump by airing near his homes

The political action committee founded by conservative lawyer George Conway is directly targeting Donald Trump with a new advertisement that will air in locations where the ex-president has homes in hopes that seeing the commercial will set off an emotional reaction.

Conway’s “Psycho PAC” is making a six-figure purchase of airtime in Palm Beach, Florida and Bedminister, New Jersey media markets — locations where Trump spends most of his time — as well as markets in South Carolina, Florida and Texas, where Trump allies Lindsey Graham, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz are based.

The minute-long advertisement is narrated by Conway, a retired corporate litigator who once ghost-wrote Supreme Court briefs in the Clinton v Jones case that led to the impeachment of President Bill Clinton in the late 1990s. He was formerly married to top Trump confidante Kellyanne Conway but emerged as a fierce critic of the ex-president during the 2020 election cycle.

It begins with him addressing Trump directly as clips of prominent Republicans’ criticism of the ex-president play in the background.

“Hey, Donald? All your friends, all the people that have worked with you, they all think you’re nuts,” he says.

The advertisement proceeds to show Trump with images of his allies popping up around his head as audio of their attacks on him — many from the 2016 election or the period after he lost the 2020 election — are repeated.

It uses a line from Cruz, the Texas senator who is up for re-election, who in 2016 said of Trump: “The man cannot tell the truth, but he combines it with being a narcissist.”

Former House Speaker Paul Ryan pops up next, repeating a line in which he called Trump “a populist authoritarian narcissist.”

Then comes John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser, who says that Trump “is not fit to be president of the United States,” and Trump’s ex-attorney general, Bill Barr, who says the country “can’t be a therapy session for a troubled man.”

The ad continues with clips from New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu, Rubio, the Florida senator who was on Trump’s vice presidential shortlist, and former GOP Representative Adam Kinzinger, all uttering various criticisms of Trump’s mental state and fitness to be president once more.

It will run for a weeklong campaign that the PAC says is meant to “spotlight Trump’s erratic behavior and unfitness for the presidency” and ensure that voters “are fully informed about the dangers of letting a deranged man like Trump back into office.”

In a statement, Conway said his group is “highlighting the fact that those who are closest to Trump recognize his instability” by “using the words of Trump’s current and former allies” against the ex-president.

“This campaign is delivering the message that concerns about Trump’s mental fitness aren’t just coming from his opponents—they’re coming from the very people who know him best. And they should not be ignored,” he said.