“They Will Continue”: Club for Growth Responds to “Trump’s Whining” in Cease and Desist

“Tough Guy Donald Trump Starts Whining When His Liberal Record is Revealed”

The Club for Growth responded to real estate mogul Donald Trump accusing them of “libel” in a letter that an aide sent to reporters on Tuesday. The Trump campaign announced earlier Tuesday they sent a cease and desist letter that states ads produced by the Club and running in Iowa are not only “disingenuous, but replete with outright lies, false, defamatory and destructive statements and downright fabrications which you fully know to be untrue.”

Trump and the Club for Growth have a long adversarial history, with the latest being a claim by the billionaire that the Club “asked for a ridiculous $1,000,000 contribution.” Now, the Club is responding to the letter and the press release.

“Tough guy Donald Trump starts whining when his liberal record is revealed,” Club for Growth President David McIntosh wrote in an email response to PPD. “Trump has advocated higher taxes numerous times over many years, just like he’s advocated for universal health care, the Wall Street bailout, and expanded government powers to take private property.”

Club for Growth Action, a political arm of the Club for Growth, announced an ad buy last week in Iowa targeting the Republican frontrunner. The ad campaign, which totals more than $1 million, features two 30-second television ads that are now airing on broadcast, cable and satellite television in the first-in-the-nation caucus state. Trump, who is and has been leading both nationwide and in Iowa caucus polling since the summer, as well as all the other early voting states, responded to the ads attacking him as just another politician who supports liberal policies.

“I am not surprised the dishonest, irrelevant and totally failing Club for Growth has resorted to attacking the definitive front runner, especially after I refused to contribute to their pathetic group,” Trump said in a statement. “We will be releasing my current tax proposal, which is a major decrease in taxes, in the next week and will continue to expose the two faced hypocrisy of the Club for Growth and the problems groups like this perpetuate within a broken Washington, D.C.”

Thus far, attacks on Trump’s past statements have had little impact on his standing among GOP primary voters. In fact, since candidates and their surrogates have begun their onslaught, the frontrunner has only widened his lead. Trump, himself, has likened himself to former President Ronald Reagan, the now-conservative standard-bearer who was once a Democrat. While it has satisfied voters, and even echoed by America’s Mayor former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani, President Reagan’s son has voiced his disagreement with the comparison.

“While a reputable organization would have at least had the decency to disclose its source — and the fact that the source article is more than 15 years old — your pitiful little group conveniently chose to leave that information out in a deliberate attempt to mislead the public into believing that it is reflective of Mr. Trump’s current position — when, unquestionably, it is not,” Trump lawyer Alan Garten wrote in the cease and desist letter. “Simply stated, your Attack Ad is not only completely disingenuous, but replete with outright lies, false, defamatory attacks and destructive statements and downright fabrications which you fully know to be untrue, thereby exposing you and your so-called ‘club’ to liability for damages and other tortious harm.”

Meanwhile, in the email from the Club sent to PPD, Mr. McIntosh made it perfectly clear he and his organization have no intention of buckling under the frontrunner’s pressure.

“Trump’s own statements prove that our ads are accurate,” McIntosh also said in his statement to PPD. “They will continue to run. We suggest that Donald grow up, stop whining, and try to defend his liberal record.”

Read Trump’s Cease and Desist Letter:

Cease and Desist CFG