President Donald Trump has gleefully explained how he told Ohio governor hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy to keep up his vile attack ad.
Trump, 80, went on a rambling tangent about Ramaswamy’s attack ad targeting his Democratic opponent, Amy Acton, during a rally in Sioux City, Iowa, Thursday night.
The ad in question features Acton’s estranged mother, Donna Arthur, calling her daughter a liar. In the 60-second clip, she also warns voters that Acton has “a serious problem” and “needs help.” The pair have been estranged since 1978, when Acton was just 12 and accused her stepfather, Cledith Arthur, of sexual abuse. Donna stood by her husband. The case never reached a trial; Arthur fled the state and remained a fugitive until his death in 2004.
The decades-old allegations are supported by court documents, which didn’t seem to inhibit Trump from supporting Ramaswamy and Arthur.
During the rally, Trump continued to air his thoughts on the ad that he had shared earlier in the day, both during a meeting with reporters and on his social media platform, Truth Social.
He also revealed more details about an apparent phone call between him and Ramaswamy as outrage over the ad grew.
“So it seems that the candidate that Vivek is running against, her mother said horrible things about her. Called her a liar, called her—I’ve never seen anything quite like it,” the president said. “And it was so terrible. And when I first saw it, I said, ‘Wow, that means Vivek easily will win the race.’”
Trump continued, “But then I got a call from Vivek, he said, ‘What would you recommend? Because I’m getting killed in the press.’ Why? He said, ‘Because they think I should immediately take the ad off.’”
The octogenarian repeated that Arthur had called her daughter “incompetent, a liar, a disgusting, unreliable person” before making it about himself.
“My mom would not say that about me, even if she believed it,” Trump said. “Mary MacLeod. I have a great mom—I had a great mom. She’s looking down at us right now.”
He returned to his conversation with Ramaswamy: “But he said, ‘What do you recommend?’ I said, ‘Now tell me again. You’re serious. The mother said horrible things about your opponent. Why can’t I have that happen to me?’”
“I said, ‘You gotta ride with it,” Trump added. “He made a commercial; he put it up. You know. like I would do, like most people would do.”
The president claimed the ad was considered “the single greatest ad in history,” before going on a separate tangent to attack a “nasty” female ABC reporter who he said was “not a particularly attractive person, inside or out.”
“She goes, ‘You should tell him to take it down immediately.’ Why? Because it’s such a good ad?” Trump said.
He continued, “The mother is calling the daughter a terrible person and a liar. Everybody should be so lucky! Why would you shield somebody from that? Why would we do that?”
“So I told him, ‘Leave it up, and look upstairs and say thank you, God, very much. I appreciate it!” Trump added. “I only wish I could have had an ad like that against somebody.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to Ramaswamy’s campaign for comment on the alleged phone call.
After the release of the ad, Acton criticized Ramaswamy in a Facebook post.
“Between the ages of 10 and 12, I was sexually abused by her husband, while my birth mother did nothing to protect me,” she said in a statement. “I’ve always known that she was deeply sick and unwell, and it’s sad to see Vivek Ramaswamy exploit her all for his own political gain.”
Acton’s campaign also released an ad in response, featuring Acton’s brother, Philip Stearns, who was also removed from their mother’s custody alongside Acton in 1978.
“Shame on Vivek,” Stearns said in the video. “The contempt he has for Amy is the contempt he has for Ohio. He’s not fit to lead.”
The Ramaswamy campaign decided earlier this week to spend $4 million to air the ad. Sources close to his campaign told Axios that the ad tested well with “persuadable” voters.
