At about the same time Democrats took over the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday morning, an anti-Trump political action committee took aim at the GOP with a new billboard along the presidential motorcade route in West Palm Beach.

The group's new bright red sign bears three letters — GOP — the acronym for the Republican Party. But the O is replaced by a hammer and sickle, the Russian symbol of proletarian solidarity. The billboard replaced another that called for President Donald Trump's impeachment.

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Mad Dog PAC, a beltway-based anti-Trump political action committee, laid claim to the motorcade-route billboard in March, when it installed a red, white and blue impeachment billboard. At about 10 a.m. on Thursday that billboard came down and was quickly replaced by the red, Russian themed sign. The billboard levels a biting dig at the Republican Party, which promoted hawkish positions during the Cold War but has largely come to the president's defense amid the ongoing investigation into alleged collusion between Trump's campaign and the Russian government.

Political signage on billboards is not uncommon. There are anti-abortion and pro-gun rights billboards along Florida's Turnpike, for example.

Outfront Media, the company that owns the billboard displaying the new Mad Dog sign, declined to comment. Florida law puts few restrictions on content, only banning billboards that pose safety hazards with specific kinds of lights or use the words "stop", "danger" or imply that drivers are in danger and must stop.

As for content, billboard owners decide how much controversy they will tolerate.

"Owners of the space make judgments as editors and publishers, to accept or reject copy depending on community standards and other factors," said Ken Klein, vice president of the Outdoor Advertising Association of America. "Political expression is often controversial."

Mad Dog's latest anti-Trump shenanigans followed a visit last weekend by the group's large inflatable yellow-haired rat, which it propped on the aft deck of a 30-foot boat it moored off the seawall behind Mar-a-Lago on Saturday afternoon.

Trump billboard battle heats up, again

Mad Dog PAC was created after anti-Trump activists joked on social media about leasing billboards for anti-Trump, anti-GOP and anti-gun messages. When its founder Claude Taylor asked for donations, hundreds of thousands of dollars poured in. The billboard is one of dozens the beltway-based group has installed across the country targeting the president, NRA and GOP candidates.

The impeachment billboard along the motorcade route angered the Committee to Defend the President, a deep-pocket pro-Trump group, that it leased the opposite side of the billboard and installed a nearly identical red, white and blue sign that thanked the president. The committee decided against re-igniting the billboard battle, citing the GOP's victory in retaining control of the Senate in November.

Billboard battle aims to peeve, praise President Trump

cstapleton@pbpost.com

@StapletonPBPost