Trump backs Vivek’s ad against DeWine’s objections as Ohio GOP feud erupts

THE DAILY BS: HOW MUCH CAN YOU HANDLE?

SPARE ME THE BS (I’ve got things to do).

Gov. Mike DeWine urged Vivek Ramaswamy to withdraw his controversial attack ad featuring Amy Acton’s estranged mother.
Trump defended the advertisement Thursday and encouraged the Republican gubernatorial nominee to continue airing it.
The intervention expands the dispute after previous criticism from Nikki Haley and support from Vice President JD Vance.

LAY IT ON ME (I’ve got time).

Ohio’s Republican family feud has reached the White House, and President Trump isn’t siding with the governor.

Gov. Mike DeWine publicly urged Vivek Ramaswamy to take down the campaign advertisement featuring Democratic gubernatorial nominee Amy Acton’s estranged mother. Trump responded Thursday by defending the $4 million ad campaign and telling Ramaswamy to keep going. An intraparty disagreement had suddenly acquired a very familiar megaphone.

The advertisement features Donna Arthur criticizing her daughter, who has spoken publicly about severe abuse during childhood. That history is not a rumor manufactured for an election season: earlier reporting and court records have supported important elements of Acton’s account. Her brother, Philip Stearns, has issued his own video defending her and criticizing the use of the family dispute in a campaign.

DeWine described the commercial as deeply troubling and urged its withdrawal. He nevertheless maintained his endorsement of Ramaswamy. That’s a rather unusual combination: vote for the candidate, but please turn off his television commercial.

Vice President JD Vance previously called on Republicans to stop ‘whining’ about the advertisement. Nikki Haley went the other direction, calling her former presidential-primary opponent a ‘bad guy.’ Trump has now made the division unmistakable by taking Ramaswamy’s side against DeWine.

Ramaswamy’s team argues that Acton’s credibility is a legitimate campaign issue. Critics object to the decision to put an estranged parent at the center of an attack that reaches into documented childhood trauma. Voters can make their own judgment about the commercial. The campaign has evidently decided millions of dollars in airtime are worth the backlash.

The genuinely new development isn’t the original video, the painful family history or Haley’s reaction. It’s the president openly contradicting Ohio’s sitting Republican governor less than two weeks before Election Day. In Ohio politics, even the endorsement now comes with an asterisk.