It's well known that throughout the GOP campaign and into the general election, Donald Trump has done things his own way, and for the most part it has worked out favorably. Most recently Trump made it known that at the GOP convention, there would be more than just traditional politicians to interact with, as the likes of Bobby Knight, Mike Tyson and Mike Ditka have been invited to attend.
What is also known, and has sent the mainstream media and everyone else into a frenzy, is the fact that Trump's cash levels were dwarfed by Clinton at the start of June. Trump wasn't the least bit concerned with the levels of funding, saying "There could be unlimited cash on hand, as I would put up my own money, as I have already done through the primaries, spending over $50 million dollars."
As it turns out, Clinton is going to need all of that cash the campaign is generating because as Bloomberg reports, the Clinton Campaign has run 9,781 ads from June 15-27 at an estimated cost of $6 million, or nearly $500,000 a day.
For context as to the amount of advertising spending Clinton is doing, the $1 million Hillary spent on Orlando television from June 19-26 is significantly more than the $682,000 Obama spent exactly four years earlier seeking re-election.
Clinton has focused heavily on Orlando, Denver, and Raleigh, the markets in battleground states, and in other markets such as Las Vegas, Clinton has only aired a few spots, allowing super-PAC Priorities USA do the bulk of the spending there.
As Bloomberg points out, the Clinton campaign advertising shows no signs of slowing down. Among some of the bigger advertising reservations set to air during the first two weeks of July are $2.7 million on national cable and satellite television targeting specific markets and states, $1.1 million in the Tampa-St. Petersburg market and $853,000 in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The Clinton campaign will also continue to rely heavily on Priorities USA to continue the barrage of advertising. Priorities USA says that it plans to spend at least $158 million in digital, television, and radio advertising through election day, including $10.5 million for advertising in Pennsylvania that it announced in the past week. The super-PAC raised more than $88 million through the end of May and says it has $45 million more in commitments.
"Advertising is reality. Campaigns can talk about states being competitive or not competitive, but where they put their TV dollars reveals what they really think." said Ken Goldstein, a University of San Francisco professor.
Goldstein's statement may actually be true, because during the time that Clinton was embarking on an all out media blitz, Donald Trump ran precisely... drum roll please... zero ads.
"I don't even need commercials, if you want to know the truth" Trump said.
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And so there we have it, the reason Trump isn't concerned about having a large cash balance is simply because, at least at this point, The Donald plans on remaining frugal and letting the mainstream media do the advertising for free.