Some might call it “preaching to the choir.” The Trump campaign has, according to Politico, been buying a lot of ad time on Fox News. And it comes at the expense of spending in battleground states.
While the Trump campaign chopped its TV spending throughout the summer, even going dark on the airwaves on multiple occasions, the campaign maintained a heavy presence on Fox. According to Advertising Analytics, an ad-tracking firm, the Trump campaign spent more money on national ads on Fox News in June, July and August ($9.4 million) than it spent on local broadcast TV in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin ($8.3 million). Trump spent an additional $9.7 million advertising in Pennsylvania, another key state he flipped in 2016, over the same time period.
Compare that to the Biden campaign, which has spent more than $35 million Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin in the last three months.
Politico calls it “Trump’s Lost Summer.”
It reflects Trump’s impulse to focus on friendly groups instead of those who may not have supported him in 2016. And the ad strategy raises additional doubts about whether the free-spending Trump campaign has made efficient use of the hundreds of millions of dollars it raised over the past four years.
Earlier this summer, Donald Trump replaced campaign manager Brad Parscale, and now we learn from The New York Times that the president’s campaign has burned through more than $800 million of $1.1 billion raised. From The Times:
Brad Parscale, the former campaign manager, liked to call Mr. Trump’s re-election war machine an “unstoppable juggernaut.” But interviews with more than a dozen current and former campaign aides and Trump allies, and a review of thousands of items in federal campaign filings, show that the president’s campaign and the R.N.C. developed some profligate habits as they burned through hundreds of millions of dollars. Since Bill Stepien replaced Mr. Parscale in July, the campaign has imposed a series of belt-tightening measures that have reshaped initiatives, including hiring practices, travel and the advertising budget.
One expense that is raising eyebrows among Republicans who are shocked at the sudden lack of funds, a Super Bowl commercial:
Among the splashiest and perhaps most questionable purchases was a pair of Super Bowl ads the campaign reserved for $11 million, according to Advertising Analytics — more than it has spent on TV in some top battleground states. It was a vanity splurge that allowed Mr. Trump to match the billionaire Michael R. Bloomberg’s buy for the big game.
