In the world of presidential politics, it’s the summer of stunts.
After Donald Trump read South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham’s personal cell phone number during a presidential speech this week, Graham got his revenge: but not on Trump.
In a video posted on the news website IJ Review, Graham took a meat cleaver to a flip-phone, dropped it in a blender, set it on fire with lighter fluid, hit it with a golf driver, chopped it with a samurai sword, baked it in an oven and threw it off a roof.
Arizona Sen. John McCain, a close friend of Graham’s, tweeted this in response:
The stunt came after Graham’s was bombarded with calls and texts after Trump recited his number during an event in his home state of South Carolina and urged people to call him.
Graham isn’t the only presidential candidate playing with fire this week: In a video released Tuesday, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul printed out the federal tax code, cut it with a chainsaw, shoved the papers into a wood chipper and, yes, set it on fire.
Call it the Trump Effect. With Trump taking up so much media oxygen, candidates scrambling to get their name out in public have resorted to lighting things on fire to make it happen.