If anyone was pleased by the billboard’s message, Cooper says, “We would submit they may be confused about their allegiances.” He adds that although the newspaper’s editorial page “supported Trump in some of his policies while he was in the White House, we feel repulsed that any of his supporters would put him on the same level as Jesus Christ or assign any similar martyrdom to his election loss. Making the former president out to be any more than the mortal he is, flawed like the rest of us, is unintelligent, heretical and potentially dangerous.”
Billboards Are a ‘Powerful Medium’
Scott Hibberts, general manager of billboard vendor Reagan Outdoor Advertising, wouldn’t disclose who purchased the billboard space or the contract terms. The company, he says, “supports our advertiser’s First Amendment rights and the use of our displays to promote legal products and services, as well as other messages that may be editorial in nature.”
Hibberts acknowledges that billboards are “a powerful medium to reach the public,” and he says “companies and citizens alike” can display messages as long as they’re “not offensive to the moral standards of the community, do not provide misleading or false statements, and are legal.” Views expressed via the billboards, he adds, “belong to our advertisers,” not to the vendor.
During the past few years, both pro- and anti-Trump billboards have raised eyebrows throughout the country. Last fall in Michigan, an ad paid for by a local pro-life organization portrayed Trump gazing at a child, with the caption stating “Life Trump’s [sic] Everything.”
