Mr Trump’s first television advert, which will air in Iowa and New Hampshire this month, promises that he will “stop illegal immigration on our southern border by building a wall that Mexico will pay for”.
In a new television ad – his campaign’s first – Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump shows footage of dozens of people swarming over a border fence.
One problem: That’s not the southern border.
But fact-checking website PolitiFact has reported the footage is actually of Moroccan migrants entering Melilla, an enclave on the Moroccan coast owned by Spain.
“No shit it’s in Morocco“, Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski told CNN confirming the reports.
The video came from an Italian TV network in 2014, according to PolitiFact.
“I think the point is well taken that we have 2,000 miles of open border at the southern border and, well, whoever the person is, I’m sure I’ll be sending them a letter very soon on behalf of Mr. Trump, but the bottom line is it’s the same thing”, Cohen said.
Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks said late Monday that Trump’s ad shows the outcome of letting USA border security continue to deteriorate. “The biased mainstream media doesn t understand, but Americans who want to protect their jobs and their families do”, the statement said.
Donald Trump’s latest call to build a border wall illustrates exactly why such a barrier wouldn’t stem immigration flows to the U.S. He has repeatedly called for a continuous wall along the U.S.-Mexico border to rid the U.S. of unauthorized immigration.
“No s**t it’s not the Mexican border, but that’s what our country is going to look like”, he said.
By the time the footage made it into Trump’s ad, both RepubblicaTV’s logo and the 2014 time stamp were no longer visible.
Trump, in a statement, had said “I am very proud of this ad, I don’t know if I need it, but I don t want to take any chances because if I win we are going to Make America Great Again“.