Donald Trump’s campaign is canceling more than $1 million in television time slated for next week, slashing time as scrutiny increases over how Trump forces will finance the campaign’s final advertising blitz.
The cancellations next week arrived in at least Florida, Ohio, Iowa, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Colorado and Maine, according to a person tracking the buys, mostly in minor markets.
Trump spokesman Jason Miller did not respond to a request for comment, but said in a series of tweets that state-level spending would remain “roughly same.” He described the adjustments as “shifting resources from over-performing markets to new battlegrounds.”
Cancellations and adjustments are not unheard of in political advertising, especially as campaigns stare down tough decisions about how to allocate resources in the final weeks.
Although the Trump campaign had said it would reserve $100 million in television time from late September through Election Day, the campaign as of Friday has reserved less than half of that — $45 million, with more than one-third of that headed to Florida, according to advertising records.
The $100 million buy would almost certainly not be possible without either a substantial increase in fundraising or, more likely, by Trump writing a check from his personal fortune that many Republicans close to him expect him to cut.
The adjustments come as outside groups pick up more of the advertising slack for the Trump campaign. A nonprofit funded by the powerful Adelson and Ricketts families on Friday disclosed $7.3 million in spending, the first television push by the group, 45Commtitee, which isn’t required to disclose its donors.
And the National Rifle Association, which has become one of the biggest pro-Trump boosters on television, said earlier this week it would spend another $6.5 million on his behalf.
