President Trump is standing firm behind Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign ad that features Amy Acton’s estranged mother calling her a liar, brushing aside calls from fellow Republicans to take it down.
In a social media post Thursday afternoon, Trump called the Ohio gubernatorial ad “powerful” and said he would run it himself. The spot features Donna Arthur, the long-estranged mother of Democratic candidate Amy Acton, saying her daughter has lied about her past and the struggles of growing up.
The defense landed nearly two weeks before the midterm elections and put Trump squarely at odds with Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and several other Republicans who want the ad pulled. Vice President JD Vance, by contrast, backed Ramaswamy’s decision and scolded fellow Republicans for fretting more about the commercial than about Democratic policy.
Trump spoke bluntly. He framed the spot as effective politics and treated Republican criticism as misplaced loyalty theater.
"Who wouldn't use such an Ad? I would, it's called, 'hitting pay dirt.'"
He also tore into DeWine for urging a takedown, writing that the governor “probably wants a Dumocrat to win” and does not want someone who will do a better job than he is capable of doing. Trump called DeWine disloyal to the Republican Party and described Acton’s mother as “brave.”
In Columbus, DeWine told reporters the commercial is “deeply, deeply troubling” and that the Ramaswamy campaign “needs to take it down.” The Republican governor, a former prosecutor who once handled rape cases, said it is “wrong to run this ad” and that he would urge the campaign to pull it.
ABC News reported DeWine’s fuller case for speaking out. He cast the fight as a duty to victims and to children who need to know adults will protect them.
"I think we all have an obligation to speak out for the victims."
DeWine went further:
"It's one of the reasons I'm doing this today. We need to speak out. We need to send the message to children that we are here to protect them and that there are people who will in fact protect them, and we just have to make sure we always try to do that."
He also said his own experience working with Acton every day as her boss at the Ohio Department of Health left him convinced she “certainly told the truth.” Even so, DeWine refused to walk back his endorsement of Ramaswamy. “Today is about the ad. But... I'm not changing my endorsement,” he said.
Vance took the opposite line at an Ohio campaign event Wednesday. He praised Ramaswamy for putting the charge on television and rejected the panic around it.
"Vivek Ramaswamy had the audacity to run a TV commercial which calls it out like it is and calls Amy Acton a liar."
Speaking to reporters, Vance said he was “a little bit disgusted” by Republicans “who are whining more about that advertisement than they are about what the congressional Democrats and other Democrats want to do to the United States of America.”
That tone drew a sharp rebuke from Rep. Ashley Hinson, an Iowa Republican running for Senate. In an interview with ABC’s Jonathan Karl for “This Week,” Hinson said she viewed the ad as a mother and called it “absolutely terrible.”
"I think about it as a mom, and you think about childhood having to relive that trauma. I think it's absolutely terrible, and I think they should take the ad down."
Hinson also labeled Vance’s comments “absolutely the wrong tone” and said they send “absolutely the wrong message.”
Acton, a physician and former Ohio Department of Health director under DeWine, blasted the commercial at a campaign event Wednesday. She called it “horrible and hideous,” “despicable,” and “an exploitative thing to do.”
She has long been public about a tumultuous relationship with her mother and about alleged abuse. Acton has said her mother’s second husband molested her between ages 9 and 12, that she testified against her stepfather, and that she has not spoken to her mother since she was 12. Charges were filed; he pleaded not guilty, fled the state before trial, never appeared before a judge, and died in 2004. Those details are Acton’s account and the historical case record as reported, not a fresh court finding tied to the ad itself.
Donna Arthur appears in the Ramaswamy spot saying her daughter lied about that past. The Ramaswamy campaign confirmed Tuesday that it made the ad after the commercial circulated on social media late Monday. Ramaswamy himself did not offer a direct public quote in the main reporting on the backlash.
Ohio Sen. Jon Husted, running for reelection, said Wednesday he would not have run the ad. Former Ohio Rep. Jim Renacci, who ran for Senate in 2018 and governor in 2022, called on Ramaswamy on Thursday to “pivot quickly” away from the attack.
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican, told ABC affiliate WSYX his office is reviewing complaints “to see if it violated any state laws.” He added that candidates answer for their own ads and that he “probably wouldn't run an ad like that,” while stressing every candidate still gets to make that call.
The pile-on left a clear split inside the party. Trump and Vance treated the commercial as fair political combat and a test of seriousness. DeWine, Hinson, Husted, Renacci, and LaRose treated it as a line that should not be crossed, even while most stopped short of abandoning Ramaswamy as the nominee.
The fight is unfolding on a compressed clock. The ad hit social media late Monday; Ramaswamy’s team confirmed ownership Tuesday; Acton, Husted, and Vance answered Wednesday; DeWine, Trump, Hinson, and Renacci weighed in Thursday. Ohio’s governor’s race is now carrying a raw family dispute into living rooms at the exact moment voters are locking in midterm choices.
DeWine still endorses Ramaswamy. LaRose’s office has not announced a finding on the complaints. And Trump has told the campaign, in public, to keep the ad up. That is the live choice facing Ramaswamy: heed the president who calls the spot “pay dirt,” or satisfy Republican critics who want it gone.
In a party that claims it wants straight talk about character and record, the loudest fight should not be over whether a mother is allowed to speak on camera, it should be over whether the candidate under fire can answer the charge.
