Republicans trick NY residents into criticising Trump’s opponents on videos

US President Donald Trump is under fire for misusing government machinery to fuel his political ambitions.

In a latest development, a Trump associate tricked some residents of a New York building into giving an interview which showed New York mayor and Democrat leader Bill de Blasio in a bad light.

The video interviews were then tweaked and edited into a two-minute video clip that was aired prominently on Thursday (August 27) at the Republican National Convention.

Lynne Patton, a Trump associate who oversees federal housing programs in New York, spoke to residents about conditions in their buildings, which badly needed repairs. She spoke to four residents for about four hours, of which three of them were not aware of the ‘real’ purpose of the video.

Patton, as the head of the New York office of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, is barred by law from using her government position to engage in political activities.

“I am not a Trump supporter,” one of the tenants, Claudia Perez, later told the New York Times. “I am not a supporter of his racist policies on immigration. I am a first-generation Honduran. It was my people he was sending back.”

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The four tenants in the public housing video were all interviewed on Friday by The New York Times.

Three said they opposed President Trump and were misled about the video.

The video clip was the second occasion when Trump campaign’s team mislead participants in an event involving the federal government that was filmed for the Republican National Convention (RNC).

Two days ago, the convention showed a video of five new American citizens being sworn in at a naturalisation ceremony by Trump. A few among the five said they did not know they were being filmed for a political event.

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Trump is seeking a second term as President of the US in the polls scheduled to be held on November 3. Mike Pence is his running mate. Joe Biden is the Democratic Party nominee for the post of President while Indian-origin Kamala Harris is the party’s Vice-President nominee.