MAGA star and second-place Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake is among former President Donald Trump‘s most vociferous boosters. The two share a intransigent election denialism (that is very profitable) and a background in TV media — Trump as a reality TV star and Lake as a news media personality.
It’s rumored Lake may even be a candidate for Vice President on a Trump 2024 presidential ticket, were he to win the GOP race he’s currently leading.
In further service of Trump, Lake is now sharing a high-production star-studded video by the Brenden Dilley X account that attempts to flip the script on Trump — at least the script as read outside of the confines of MAGA. (As for stars, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Larry King, Hershel Walker, Anderson Cooper, Lindsey Graham and The View cast, among others, are featured.)
Dilley, with 63K followers on X, benefits from Lake’s amplification to her 1.1M followers. (Dilley also posts messages saying “climate change is a hoax” and that poverty is an illusion.)
What if they lied to you about President Trump?pic.twitter.com/cvAmq70hwT
— Brenden Dilley (@WarlordDilley) August 21, 2023
Whereas inside the MAGA-verse, the former President is a victim of political persecution and universal slander, outside the circle of his most devoted followers, Trump is viewed more harshly. (A recent poll said 65% of Americans would not vote for him in a general election.)
Frequent criticisms of Trump include accusations of racism, sexism, and bigotry — and the video Lake shared, with its deeply intoned voiceover, asks viewers to consider that all these labels don’t fit the former President. What if he was never,” it asks, “a racist?” and “What if he was never…a sexist…a bigot?”
What if all those perceptions of Trump — created in the public eye by Trump’s own actions — were wrong? Sowing doubt about Trump’s perceived character flaws is the video’s purpose and it asks questions Kari Lake and her MAGA team want to pose. Those outside of the MAGA circle generally give this reply: but he is those things.
The reactions are illustrative of the current divide in the country, much of which splits right on Trump line. A typical reaction from a Lake follower reads like this: “This made me cry. Their cruelty and lies about Trump who is a good man is just sickening.”
Then there is the reaction from someone unpersuaded by the theatrical presentation: “Meh. Trump directly engaged in solicitation of election fraud, spreading disinformation, pressuring investigators and officials, abusing his powers of office, and filing false lawsuits.”
