With 96 days to go until the November general election, President Trump’s re-election team is pausing briefly on television commercials to adjust the campaign’s strategy.
The Trump campaign has heavily expended Democratic challenger Joe Biden’s campaign to run television and digital commercials since the start of the general election campaign in April.
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But Advertising Analytics, a leading ad-tracking firm, tweeted on Wednesday that “With no TV schedules reserved today, @realDonaldTrump is off the air for now. # Election2020 # ElectionPresidential “.
The move came when Biden, the former vice president and presumptive Democratic candidate, was present this week in six key battlefield states: Florida, Arizona, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Michigan and Wisconsin. And on Thursday, Biden’s campaign touted that ads were going up in Ohio, a four-year turnaround that Trump won by 8 points four years ago, but where recent polls show a contest for the state’s 18 electoral votes.
The former vice president’s campaign is stepping up his game, spending roughly $ 15 million last week and $ 14.5 million this week to run television, digital and radio commercials on key battlefields. That’s a dramatic increase compared to what they had been spending before mid-July.
Noting the pause in Trump’s campaign ads, Advertising Analytics Vice President John Link noted that “historically it is an anomaly.” We really haven’t seen a complete breakdown like this. “
But Link also noted that it may only be for a day or two, noting that the Trump campaign already has $ 146.5 million set aside to run commercials from Labor Day through Election Day.
The Trump campaign told Fox News “With the change in leadership in the campaign, a review and adjustment of the campaign strategy is understandable. We will return to the air soon, exposing Joe Biden even more vigorously as a puppet of the radical left. “
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That change in leadership came earlier this month, when campaign veteran Bill Stepien replaced Brad Parscale as Trump’s campaign manager.
In the past 24 hours, several media have highlighted the Trump campaign that is darkening on the airwaves in Michigan, where the latest public opinion polls show that Biden has a single-digit superior advantage over the president.
Biden’s deputy press secretary for the campaign, Matt Hill, tweeted Thursday that “as Donald Trump withdraws on the airwaves in key states like Michigan, @JoeBiden is expanding his paid media offensive to OHIO and highlighting his #BuildBackBetter agenda on new announcements. “
But Advertising Analytics Link notes that the Trump campaign pledged to spend $ 11.4 million to run ads in the state in the fall. He says that would be roughly 8 percent of the campaign’s total advertising spending, compared to the roughly 3 percent of their total advertising spending they have spent to date to run commercials in Michigan.
While the president’s campaign takes what may be a very short break in places on key battlefields, pro-Trump leader super PAC America First is spending nearly $ 23 million to run commercials through the end of August in Arizona, Carolina. North, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
