After months spent barnstorming the country for live rallies, Donald Trump is taking his pitch to the airwaves, with paid television ads set to run in key early-voting states starting Tuesday.
“I am very proud of this ad, I don’t know if I need it, but I don’t want to take any chances because if I win we are going to make America great again,” the Republican presidential front-runner said in a statement Monday. “We have spent the least amount of money and have the best results and this is the kind of thinking the country needs.”
The spot features images of Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama, and news footage from the aftermath of the San Bernardino terror attack, with a narrator parroting Trump’s campaign pledges, including a ban on the entry of Muslims into the U.S., “until we can figure out what’s going on.”
“He’ll quickly cut the head off ISIS and take their oil,” the ad says. “And he’ll stop illegal immigration by building a wall on our southern border that Mexico will pay for.”
Trump has pledged to spend at least $2 million every week as the GOP nominating contest heats up. The Iowa and New Hampshire buys will cost him slightly in excess of that, according to his campaign.
The announcement comes just days after Trump’s rival and frequent target for ridicule, Jeb Bush, announced plans to cancel large ad buys in Iowa and South Carolina, where he trails badly in the polls. Instead, campaign troops currently based in Miami will redeploy, going door-to-door in those states, along with Nevada and New Hampshire, where his paid staff roll is expected to double to more than 40.
Those cuts follow a sustained series of heavy outlays which have, to date, failed to move the needle with voters.
“He hasn’t spent $40 million, he’s wasted $40 million,” Trump said of Bush’s reported expenditures. “There’s a big difference.”
The billionaire’s campaign on Monday also revealed plans for a new radio ad, set to run in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, featuring Kathryn Gates-Skipper, the first woman to serve as a Marine in combat operations. Gates-Skipper endorsed Trump in late November.
