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WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump withdrew most of his advertising from television over the past week, ceding the airwaves to Democratic rival Joe Biden, who is currently outpacing him more than 10 to 1, advertising data shows. .
While Trump has an inordinate ability to attract national attention, it is unusual for a White House contender to go near dark on television the week after his presidential convention. The election is just over two months away, and early voting will begin in September in some states.
The move comes as the Trump campaign has consumed money almost as fast as it has absorbed it. And after Biden slashed what was once an overwhelming cash advantage the president enjoyed, campaign officials have acknowledged they were trying to save money.
That gave Biden the opportunity to deliver an unfiltered message to voters without competitive advertising.
During the month of August, Biden doubled what Trump spent, dropping about $ 80 million in states that included key battlefields like Wisconsin, Florida, Pennsylvania and Michigan, according to data from ad-tracking firm Kantar / CMAG.
Trump’s limited spending targeted some of those states, but it also targeted places like Iowa and Montana, which he won comfortably in 2016. He’s spending about $ 1.6 million this week versus $ 18.3 million for Biden. Most of Trump’s ads are placed on Fox News Channel and CNN, as well as some ads that will run in New Mexico and Washington, DC, the data shows.
Trump spokesman Jason Miller said Monday that the campaign will return to air this week. However, data from Kantar / CMAG shows that it does not have an increase in reserved advertising until September 8.
“We have more than $ 200 million in television commercials that are reserved (from) Labor Day through Election Day,” Miller said. “We are talking to voters in the states as they begin to connect.”
The lack of publicity to take home his message comes as Trump has sought to shift the focus of his career from his handling of the coronavirus and the resulting economic collapse to the need for “law and order” after the recent riots in some cities, including Portland. Oregon and Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Nationally, protests against police brutality have been largely peaceful, although there has been some violence, looting, and destruction of property, particularly in Portland.
A man affiliated with the right-wing group Patriot Prayer died in that city after he was shot on Saturday amid skirmishes between Trump supporters leading a motorcade through the city and Black Lives Matter protesters who had gathered for another night. of demonstrations.
In Kenosha, a 17-year-old Illinois teenager is charged with shooting three people and killing two during recent protests after a white officer shot Jacob Blake, a black man, multiple times.
Trump will travel to Kenosha on Tuesday to address the unrest. While the data shows that his campaign is not running TV ads there, the ones he has placed on Facebook that target the state have focused on protests.
A handful of those ads seek to link Democrats with activists who have asked to withdraw funds from the police in response to police brutality.
An ad, titled “Democrats have lost their minds,” urges Trump supporters to come together “to send a united message that we demand law and order.”
Biden has said he is against withdrawing funds from police and in a speech Monday lamented the violence and blamed Trump for stoking the divide.
“It doesn’t want to shed light, it wants to generate heat, and it is fueling violence in our cities,” Biden said. “You cannot stop the violence because you have encouraged it for years.”
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Associated Press journalist Zeke Miller contributed to this report.
