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JImmy Williams
Pro-Trump groups launched a $45 million misinformation campaign during the 2024 election, spreading deceptive messages to key voter groups to undermine Vice President Kamala Harris. The effort, orchestrated by advisors connected to Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, used tailored messaging to depress Democratic turnout and exploit divisions within Harris’s voter base.
The campaign micro-targeted communities in battleground states, delivering contradictory messages designed to confuse and alienate voters. For example, Muslims in Michigan saw ads praising Harris’s pro-Israel stance, while Jews in Pennsylvania received ads claiming Harris wanted to cut U.S. support for Israel.
Other ads falsely attributed progressive policies to Harris, such as mandatory gun buybacks and universal health care for undocumented immigrants, while conservative-leaning audiences were warned about “radical” policies Harris didn’t support.
The ads, which were created by groups like Building America’s Future, concealed their common origins by operating under multiple banners, including Future Coalition PAC, Duty to America PAC, and Progress 2028.
Digital Misinformation on a Massive Scale
The operation involved more than 247 million ads targeting 2.7 million voters, with some ads deliberately mimicking Harris’s official messaging. One misleading ad superimposed “This is a real Kamala Harris ad” over footage of a Harris spot aimed at Jewish voters but re-targeted to Muslims.
“People were upset on both sides of the aisle, saying it was dishonest, disingenuous,” said Andrew Romeo, who helped lead the effort. “But it worked, and the numbers are undeniable.”
The strategy focused heavily on swing demographics, with digital ads claiming Harris supported quotas disadvantaging White workers or that Democrats sought to ban menthol cigarettes—a direct appeal to Black voters in states like Ohio.
Strategic Misdirection and Its Impact
The campaign was designed to exploit disillusionment among key Democratic constituencies. Ryan Tyson, a pollster involved in the effort, described a focus on persuading disaffected left-leaning voters to stay home rather than support Harris.
“Clearly, you had a White liberal demographic that hated Donald Trump,” Tyson said. “But once you get past White progressives, every other historical Democratic stronghold just started to drop off.”
The effort complemented Trump’s official campaign strategy, which focused on voter suppression over expanding Trump’s base. Trump won the election with 76 million votes, while Harris’s vote total dropped to 72.6 million—an 8 million vote decrease from Biden’s 2020 tally.
Reactions and Fallout
Democratic leaders criticized the campaign for spreading misinformation, particularly in light of Big Tech’s limited enforcement of ad rules. Google removed one ad, but Facebook declined to act on several deceptive spots.
“There is plenty of blame to go around for another election cycle riddled with misinformation online,” said Danielle Butterfield, executive director of the pro-Harris Priorities USA PAC. “Republicans will continue to slander and lie to voters to make their case. Democrats need to adapt to this reality.”
The Harris campaign countered with geo-targeted ads in communities like Dearborn, Michigan, but struggled to keep pace with the sprawling disinformation effort.
The Future of Misinformation Campaigns
The success of the campaign has alarmed experts, who see it as a troubling model for future elections. “This wasn’t just negative campaigning—it was a sophisticated and well-funded misinformation campaign aimed at dismantling trust,” said Lisa Kaplan, founder of disinformation research firm Alethea Group.
With digital misinformation now a central tool in U.S. elections, political and tech leaders face mounting pressure to create safeguards that can preserve the integrity of democratic processes.
