GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump said he will soon start spending $2 million per week on advertising in early states and that his campaign is $35 million under budget compared to where he thought it would be heading into the new year.
“I’ll be spending a minimum of $2 million a week and perhaps substantially more than that,” he told reporters Tuesday. “I’m going to be doing big ads in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and they’re going to be very substantial and I think they’re very well done; I’ve seen the first two or three of them.”
“We’re very proud of them,” he said. “We’re going to be talking about a lot of things, including the border, including trade, including ISIS and security for the country. We’re going to be talking about a lot of things in these commercials.”
Mr. Trump thus far has not had to spend much in the way of advertising, as his ability to command attention and generate headlines has kept him front and center in the presidential race. His campaign had previously announced a $300,000 radio ad buy in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina in November.
“I don’t think I need to spend anything, and I’m very proud of the fact that I’ve spent the least and have the best result,” he said, pointing to his standing in recent polling. “Honestly, I don’t want to take any chances. We’re doing so well in Iowa. We’re doing so well in New Hampshire; we’re doing so well in South Carolina.”
“In Nevada, the poll came out today - it was beyond,” he said. “I mean, it was 38 or 39 and everybody else is very low. But I feel I have an obligation even to myself, and to the country, to spend, and so we’re going to be spending a minimum of $2 million for the first and then we’ll see what happens, and if anybody goes after me, I will spend a lot of money against the people that go after me.”
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He said he is “$35 million under budget.”
“I thought as of January 1st, I would have spent $35 million on ads,” he said. “I spent nothing. So I’m 35 million under budget…when I build, I like to build under budget. When we fix the infrastructure of our country, I want that to be under budget, and it’s going to come in under budget, [because] we have people that don’t know what they’re doing.”
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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