A mystery man who paid for viral highway billboards trolling President Joe Biden has been revealed to be former Pennsylvania state senator and gubernatorial candidate Scott Wagner.
The billboards, showing Biden dressed like a Taliban militant, read “Making the Taliban Great Again!” and are spread along the Pennsylvania Turnpike Interstate 83, as well as Routes 322, 11-15, and 15, the York Daily Record reported.
11 MARINES, NAVY MEDIC AMONG DEAD AS KABUL CASUALTIES CLIMB
Wagner said he spent about $15,000 to lease a dozen billboards for two months to bring attention to and criticize the Biden administration’s evacuation of Afghanistan, during which 13 U.S. service members died and the Taliban retook the country.
Who’s responsible for the Joe Biden Taliban billboard in Pa. https://t.co/BPOD2DZXHa pic.twitter.com/pFnocWn7Ih
— WKBN 27 First News (@WKBN) September 14, 2021
Wagner was a one-term Republican Pennsylvania state senator and unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate in 2018. He said he felt he needed to put up the billboards because the withdrawal from Afghanistan was “an absolute mess and a tragedy.” He added that it was similar to “Vietnam, even worse.”
“If Trump had done the same thing,” Wagner said, “he’d be looking the same way.”
11 MARINES, NAVY MEDIC AMONG DEAD AS KABUL CASUALTIES CLIMB
The ads are owned by Trone Outdoor Advertising, the vice president of which, Brian Scott, said his company is not responsible for the content of the ads so long as they meet certain standards.
“If someone wants us to put something up, we put it up,” he explained. “We try to stay in the middle … If someone wants to put up a billboard praising Joe Biden, we’ll do that.”
