In a speech on November 1 in Dade City, Florida, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton motivated voters to support her and to support Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s Democratic challenger, Patrick Murphy. To connect with the voters, Clinton spent most of the speech talking about her opponent and challenging his qualifications and the things he has said.
One of Clinton’s claims was that “in 1987, Donald Trump took out an $100,000 ad in the New York Times to criticize President Reagan. He said, ‘Our leaders are the laughing stock of the world.’”
According to a Politico article and a New York Times article, Trump took out full page ads in The Washington Post, the Boston Globe and the New York Times in 1987.
According to another Politico article and a Newsweek article, Trump spent $94,801 on the three advertisements.
The ad is an open letter criticizing American foreign policy and says that “the world is laughing at America’s politicians.” The ad does not directly mention Reagan by name, but rather calls out all politicians.
While Clinton’s direct quote does not appear in Trump’s letter, and the price of the ad was slightly less than she said, The Observatory rates her claim as mostly true as the advertisement does exist and does criticize the country’s leaders.
Sources:
Speech
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLPodrhVLTw
Politico Articles
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/10/donald-trump-ronald-reagan-213288
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/02/donald-trump-first-campaign-speech-new-hampshire-1987-213595
Full Page Ad
http://static2.politico.com/dims4/default/63e4162/2147483647/resize/314x%3E/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fstatic.politico.com%2Fa4%2Ff7%2F6cee7c4e44d1a8aa9eec853d56d1%2Fnyt-ad.jpg
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/01/nyregion/angered-by-attack-trump-urges-return-of-the-death-penalty.html
Newsweek
http://www.newsweek.com/rise-trump-357533