On Sunday, before the second presidential debate, San Francisco BART’s social media team took to Twitter and trash-talked LA Metro using some of Donald Trump’s most iconic messages.
The goal: to push BART’s own message and promote an infrastructural overhaul of the Bay Area’s major light rail transportation system.
For example, BART borrowed Donald Trump’s promise that he would build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and make Mexico pay for it, writing “We’re gonna build a better BART, and Metro Los Angeles is gonna pay for it.” They followed the tweet with the hashtag #TheBARToftheDeal, after Trump’s best-seller The Art of the Deal:
LA Metro responded with a mere “#sad” hashtag on Twitter:
BART also played upon Trump’s comments that Mexico was not sending its “best people” to America:
BART also sent a tweet promoting Measure RR, a $3.5 billion investment program to overhaul the city’s public transportation infrastructure. Measure RR will appear on the November ballot. If it passes, residents in San Francisco, Alameda and Contra Costa counties would face significant tax hikes as a result of the investment.
Social media users went wild over the tweets:
In the end, BART suggested that the politicized tweeting frenzy was in jest, adding that LA Metro was in on it the entire time:
BART has endured more serious public relations controversies in recent years, such as Black Lives Matter protests shutting down parts of the system, violent crime, and public urination and defecation in BART stations.
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