President Trump is lashing back at yet another critic via an early morning tweet today, and this time it's billionaire activist Tom Steyer, who is dropping upwards of $10 million on a national ad campaign pushing for the impeachment of Trump. Calling Steyer "wacky & totally unhinged," the President likely was tweeting around 6 a.m. this morning, likely having just seen the ad air on Fox News.
As we saw earlier this week, Steyer's stern ad implores citizens to take a stand against the President, saying that Trump is pushing the country "to the brink of nuclear war," "taken money from foreign governments," and "threatened to shut down news organizations that report the truth." And Steyer's own face and voice on the ad are an indication of his political aspirations as he's rumored to be a likely challenger to Sen. Dianne Feinstein as she faces reelection next year.
"A Republican Congress once impeached a president for far less," Steyer says in his ad, which directs people to a petition which now has over 622,000 signers.
As the AP reports, Steyer's ad is airing on Fox News as well as other national outlets, and that is obviously the channel the President was tuned to at the time, because one minute after tweet about Steyer, he tweeted a "thanks" to the team at Fox and Friends, congratulating them on a "great show."
Wacky & totally unhinged Tom Steyer, who has been fighting me and my Make America Great Again agenda from beginning, never wins elections!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 27, 2017
Thank you @foxandfriends. Really great job and show!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 27, 2017
Like comedian John Oliver has been doing, it appears Steyer is buying ad time during one of the President's favorite shows on Fox News in the hope that he will see it.
The part about how Steyer "never wins elections" is easily debunked, of course, as so many of the President's statements can be. Steyer was the largest backer of Prop 56 in this last election, the ballot measure that added a $2 tax to packs of cigarettes statewide, which passed with over 64% of the vote and took effect April 1. Similarly, in 2012, Steyer basically single-handedly backed Prop 39, which passed, and which as Ballotpedia reminds us, "required out-of-state businesses to calculate their California income tax liability based on the percentage of their sales in California."
Steyer, who retired from the SF-based hedge fund he started, Farallon Capital, in 2012 in order to focus on political activities including fighting climate change, has never run for or held elected office.
Previously: Local Billionaire Drops $10 Million On 'Impeach Trump' TV Ads