Trump Campaign Operatives Making Fake Websites For Democratic Candidates

When you enter the ViciMediaGroup.com website, the first thing you see is an endorsement from Brad Parscale, Trump’s very Proud Boy-looking campaign manager (above). Yesterday, Vici Media admitted they alerted the Trump campaign, their top client, that they are creating fake web sites targetting Democrats running for their party’s nomination. A Trump campaign spokesperson told the NY Times that it’s "great that talented supporters of President Trump use their time to help his re-election." The Trump campaign won’t cop to paying ViciMedia, which they have on retainer, for creating the fake and misleading websites.

The sites seem suspiciously like the sites created by Russian trolls during the 2016 election cycle. The fake Biden site, for example, is filled with rhetoric geared to sway Democrats from Biden to a less conservative, less racist candidate. In fact, all of the parody websites target the least progressive aspects of each candidate, not unlike the strategy Russian troll accounts took on both liberal and conservative stances to convince both Democrats and Republicans to vote for someone other than Hillary Clinton. Aside from the Biden site, ViciMedia has created fake sites for Bernie, Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris. They’re pretty childish and aimed strictly at the kind of low-IQ Trump supporter who falls for Nigerian prince e-mails. The fake Biden site, however, is still in the second page of Google search results for "Joe Biden," and had more unique visitors than the real campaign webpage through the end of May. “To make the Biden parody site more successful, Mauldin [Vici Media owner] posted repeatedly about it on Reddit, including in the now-quarantined pro-Trump subreddit r/The_Donald, where he encouraged users to use his dupe to "red pill" Democrats. Red pilling describes exposing people to truths that may be hard to accept, such as in the film The Matrix.”

Mauldin's parody website highlights accusations of Biden's inappropriate behavior toward women, with videos and photos of the candidate touching women and children. It mentions Biden's 2012 remarks saying President Barack Obama "has a big stick."

The website also shares legislative "accomplishments" of when Biden voted for the Defense of Marriage Act in 2006, against busing as a way to desegregate schools in the '70s, and for the Iraq War.