Whistleblower Exposes LA Metro's Plan to Sideline Buses Advertising 'Melania' Documentary

All right, I’ll get the disclosure part out of the way right at the start: this story involves my wife, Los Angeles County GOP Chair Roxanne Hoge.

 She got a tip on Wednesday that up to one hundred LA Metro buses featuring ads for the Melania movie were being kept out of service for the weekend. Her post about the situation went viral, amassing over 100,000 views:

LA Metro, of course, denied that anything untoward was taking place in several responses that were at odds with each other.

Because my motto is "Trust, But Verify" I did just that.  

To their credit, Metro responded. To their detriment, they went with two different takes.

On Thursday, however, they claimed to the California Post that they had quietly altered the routes of a number of buses due to “vandalism.” Right.

“I’m hearing it’s because someone doesn’t want Melania, The Movie, to have a good opening weekend,” Hoge wrote in a X chain that made thousands of impressions.

[…]

Los Angeles Metro admitted to pulling buses with ads promoting First Lady Melania Trump’s new documentary off busy roads over vandalism concerns.

The transit authority said buses featuring the ads for “Melania” were being rerouted to other “geographic areas to minimize potential vandalism,”

“The buses remain in regular service. Our buses have unfortunately been subject to vandalism over the last couple of years,” the agency told Fox Los Angeles.

No word on what backwater routes the buses were assigned to.

Notice here, meanwhile, that they say they noticed vandalism at “city bus stops.” Not the buses themselves. Interesting.

So, after seeing significant vandalism at city bus stops on advertising for the Melania movie, Metro proactively reassigned some the buses containing that advertising to other geographic areas to minimize potential vandalism.

Now stop and think for a second: does anyone really imagine that if buses were driving around with ads for one of Michelle Obama’s self-pitying tomes or bitter podcasts and were vandalized, that LA Metro would take steps to minimize their exposure? If so, I’ve got a bridge to sell you.

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It is true that bus stops are being vandalized — but that’s always the case here in Mayor Karen Bass’ Los Angeles and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s California. Many look like trash heaps, and the benches are usually completely taken over by homeless people.

We’re hearing of other shenanigans going on regarding the Melania movie, which is distributed by Amazon MGM Studios and will be officially released Friday. President Trump and the First Lady are scheduled to attend a special premiere on Thursday evening at the Trump-Kennedy Center.

Expect some tolerant liberals to show up and bang on drums and chant, because that’s what they’re good at. I'll be attending a screening tonight with Roxanne at a secure undisclosed location, and will report any mischief should it occur.