Trump Pulls TV Ads Off the Air Entirely in Key States
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
BENJAMIN HART SEPTEMBER 14, 2020
Fifty days out from the presidential election, President Trump’s campaign is showing conspicuous signs that its onetime financial advantage over Joe Biden is now a major deficit.
Facing what appears to be a significant cash shortage , the Trump campaign has, for now, completely gone off the TV airwaves in Michigan and Pennsylvania, two of the core swing states that the president narrowly wrested from Democrats four years ago — and states where Trump has consistently trailed Biden in the polls throughout 2020.
Trump is also at an airtime disadvantage in other key states, Bloomberg reports :
Between Aug. 10 and Sept. 7, Biden spent $97.7 million on broadcast and cable ads, while Trump spent $21.6 million, according to ad-tracking firm Advertising Analytics.
In some crucial battleground states Biden outspent Trump. In Wisconsin, Biden spent $9.2 million to Trump’s $1.5 million; in Florida, Biden spent $23.2 million to Trump’s $6.4 million; in Arizona, Biden spent $10 million compared to $1.4 million by Trump, and in North Carolina, Biden spent $11.5 million to Trump’s $3.7 million.
The Trump team, which just a few months ago seemed to have an insurmountable cash edge on the Democrats, raised $210 million in August. After struggling mightily to raise funds during the primary, Biden’s campaign has quickly turned into a financial juggernaut — it raised $365.4 million during that period.
The Washington Post reported last week that, while outside groups have spent an additional $28 million on Trump ads, Biden retains a major advantage — and some leading Republicans, like Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, have sounded the alarm on the pullback from TV.
Bill Stepien, who took over as the head of Trump’s campaign after the profligate Brad Parscale was demoted earlier this year, has cast the move as a necessary adjustment to gear up for the final 30-day stretch of the campaign. Stepien and other campaign officials have emphasized what they characterize as a superior ground game and have reminded reporters that they fielded similar questions about the Trump campaign’s priorities four years ago.
In 2016, the Trump campaign eschewed a TV-dominated strategy, calculating that voters were already familiar with their candidate. The campaign instead focused much of its advertising and persuasion efforts on Facebook and other websites — an unorthodox strategy that paid off.
The campaign is once again spending heavily on digital advertising ; it has has plowed $170 million into Facebook and Google since 2019. In comparison, the Biden campaign spent $90 million in digital advertising during that time. The Trump campaign has also run prominent ads on YouTube and other sites. Those spots, according to both campaigns, seem primarily aimed at turning out voters who are already fans of the president. But with large swaths of suburban voters turning away from the president, counting primarily on base mobilization may be riskier than it was in 2016.
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They stole all his money. Trump campaign aides and managers have been robbing Trump blind. His children and he have been robbing the campaign too.
Now he lacks funds to run tv ads in key swing states. So sad.
Yet he tried to match Bloomberg $ for $ in meaningless Super Bowl advertising when he should have let the DNC and the field batter each other and remain silent.
But don't count your chickens before they hatch, they say.
Perhaps Trump will, as he stated a few days ago spend whatever it takes of his own money to defeat Biden.
The $100 million that Bloomberg will spend in Florida to support Biden must have pissed ''Little Donnie''.
Let's see, Bloomberg net worth $55 billion. Trump's net worth, $2.5 billion. Kinda chump change when compared to Bloomberg.
OK, Trump let's see you match Bloomberg's $100 million for starters.
There is no way that Trump will put up a dime of his own money. He probably doesn't have any he can afford to spend. I don't believe for a second that Trump actually has a net worth of $2.5 billion, or anything near that amount, no matter what he says. He may be in debt for over a billion, but that doesn't make him a billionaire.
I agree. You can put this latest declaration into the same category with about a zillion other things he has said he would do, but never did.
Trump has stated on many occasions that he is worth $10 billion. The $2.5 is the latest from Forbes and probably a very generous amount.
Whatever the amount it's chump change when compared to Bloomberg.
Our "democracy" belongs to billionaires.
yeah....right....
phffftttt...........
I don't know where Forbes derives its information from or whether it is truly a credible source. We know that Trump is not a credible source for anything.
Either way, you are unquestionably correct that Trump's net worth, or negative net worth, is chump change when compared to Bloomberg.
Mr. Trump has said that being POTUS cost him between 2 and 5 billion this term, but it's worth it...
... and of course we may believe him...
LMAO, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn for sale.
what a coincidence. that's close to the same amount it's cost the taxpayers for all his golf trips, and to protect him and his family of grifters from some long deferred payments of karma.
Time to sell off all of his property in a futile attempt to hold onto the WH.
Broke as well as in prison will be pure Karma.
I wonder if the drop in $ has something to do with the fact that $50,000 in campaign donations was spent on Kimberly Guilfoyle's birthday party. If I were a significant campaign donor and learned that funds were being used in such a manner, not only would I be peeved, I would wonder if my political contributions might be better spent elsewhere.
Is that even legal?
One wouldn't think so. But Donald Trump's campaign staff will come up with some stupid loophole.
What is this word?
It's something I hear thrown around the office quite often
You don't work for Trump, I take it?
kim has a freezer full of male arms that have been chewed off mid-bicep.
Not on your life
I guess that's payment
Time to sell off all of his property in a futile attempt to hold onto the WH.
Broke as well as in prison is pure Karma.
When I first read this title, I assumed it was because of all the errors in the ads.
I'm pretty naive, hmmmm ?
He's broke. His campaign is broke. His kids don't have any money except for what they've managed to grift the Federal Government out of with taxpayer paid hotels and airline travel.
He won't be using his own money for his campaign because he doesn't have any. I think the proof is right there in pulling TV ads out of PA and MI...key swing states