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Trump's 'Great American Comeback' campaign ad shows Ukraine stock footage

The commercials are running in the battleground states of North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan

Justin Vallejo
New York
Thursday 10 September 2020 21:50 BST
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Trump campaign video promoting Great American comeback is actually footage of Ukraine
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Donald Trump is making Ukraine great again with a new campaign ad featuring foreign stock footage of the former Soviet bloc country.

Titled “Great American Comeback”, the new television spot weaves in widely available footage of Ukrainian and Italian models, and a Ukraine warehouse, as representative of a United States in decline under Joe Biden, according to an ABC News report on Thursday.

The video, running in battleground states, highlights the August jobs report before weaving in the European footage of supposed Americans and business lights going out as Joe Biden says "I would shut it down" in the background.

"In the race for a vaccine, the finish line is approaching, safety protocols in place, and the greatest economy the world has ever seen coming back to life," the ad begins.

"But Joe Biden wants to change that. Why would we ever let Biden kill countless American businesses, jobs, and our economic future, when president Trump's great American comeback is now under way."

Quoting video production company PromZone Media Group, ABC News confirmed one of the buildings used in the footage, at about 20 seconds in, is a Ukrainian wallpaper warehouse.

A woman at the 15-second mark looking concerned, meanwhile, was confirmed by the outlet as being a Ukrainian model from production studio Stockbusters. A man looking upset while using a computer (18 second mark) is credited on a stock footage website as being Italian.

The Trump campaign declined to comment to ABC News over its the report, which quoted ad service firm CMAG saying the ad was running across North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan with about half a million dollars in advertising budget behind it.

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