Trump campaign has the wrong Georgia on its mind in digital election ads in the Peach State

The Blue Ridge Mountains in northern Georgia offer some splendid natural vistas. And it’s not hard to find photographs of the lush national forests with their wildflowers, sparkling streams and waterfalls.

But former President Donald Trump’s campaign ran this digital Facebook ad over the weekend urging potential supporters in the Peach State to check their voter registration status. The Trump ad read:

ATTENTION GEORGIA: I'm humbly asking you to stop what you're doing and check your voter registration status. Only a handful of votes will decide this election. We can stop inflation, secure our borders, lower taxes, and make America Great Again!" The ad uses a backdrop of a meadowed mountain range with the inscription:  "REGISTER TO VOTE FOR TRUMP. CHECK YOUR REGISTRATION" 

The Atlanta Journal -Constitution pointed out that there was a glaring mistake in the ad. The meadowed mountain range used in the Trump ad was not in the U.S. state or even in the U.S.A.

The photo used was from the Shutterstock image library and actually is a landscape from the country named Georgia — the former Soviet republic located in the Caucasus that borders Russia and Turkey.

Shutterstock describes the photo as follows: “Blooming white rhododendron flowers in the Caucasus mountains in June. Cloudy morning view of the mountain hill in Upper Svanetia, Georgia.”

Ammar Moussa, Director of Rapid Response for the Harris-Walz campaign, wasn’t about to let this embarrassing flub pass without commenting.

So he posted this mocking comment on X, formerly known as Twitter:

Yikes.

The Trump campaign is running ads in Georgia featuring a picture from … the country of Georgia.

Top notch operation.  

And this led to some humorous reactions as to how such a mistake could occur.

Georgia, now an independent country on the shore of the Black Sea, was part of the Russian empire and later a Soviet republic. Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin was born in Georgia.

Georgia gained its independence with the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. But after Georgia elected a pro-Western president in 2004, tensions with Russia grew. Russia invaded and partially occupied Georgia in 2008 to support separatists in two Georgian provinces — South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Russia recognized the two provinces as independent states after a five-day war.

The same scenario was replayed six years later when Russia annexed Crimea and supported separatist movements in eastern Ukraine.

At the end of October, Georgia faces a critical parliamentary election. The Hill wrote that pro-democracy forces in Georgia see the election “as the last chance to stand up to aspiring autocrats inspired by Russian President Vladimir Putin.”

In May, there were huge protests in the Georgian capital Tbilisi after the government tried to pass a “foreign agent” law modeled after a Russian law introduced by Putin to stifle dissent.

The Hill wrote this about the stakes in the upcoming Georgian election:

The ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party’s billionaire founder and de-facto leader Bidzina Ivanishvili is viewed as employing Putin’s playbook to stifle dissent, consolidate power and jeopardize Georgia’s ascension to the European Union.

Ahead of the election, the party is promoting conspiracy theories that the U.S. and European leaders are working to institute a coup and push the country into opening a second-front of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The Biden administration has levied sanctions against the government for pushing legislation criticized as suppressing civil society organizations, the free press, and rolling back LGBTQ rights. And the European Union has halted Georgia’s accession to the 27-nation bloc.

“The regime is the instrument of Russia’s hybrid warfare,” said Tamara Chergoleishvili, co-founder of the Federalists party, one of more than a dozen political opposition groups which are united in their opposition to GD, but divided over a strategy to oust the ruling party.

“The only reason Georgian Dream is in power is Ivanishvili, and Ivanishvili is the source of power, not Georgian people because he has captured the Georgian state.”

Sound familiar? Maybe using that image from Georgia (the country) in a political ad for the Trump campaign is appropriate after all.