The Trump campaign has reportedly squandered most of the $1.1 billion it raised, blowing millions on Super Bowl ads to rival Bloomberg and targeted DC ads to please Trump

Authored by businessinsider.com and submitted by chrisdh79
image for The Trump campaign has reportedly squandered most of the $1.1 billion it raised, blowing millions on Super Bowl ads to rival Bloomberg and targeted DC ads to please Trump

Between January and July, President Donald Trump's reelection campaign spent $800 million of its $1.1 billion campaign war chest, a New York Times investigation has found.

Some of the big spends by the campaign seemed more designed to please Trump than win over voters, with millions spent on ads in solidly Democratic Washington, DC, The Times reported.

The campaign also spent $11 million on Super Bowl ads to rival former Democratic candidate and billionaire Mike Bloomberg, The Times said.

Much of the spending can be traced to decisions by Brad Parscale, who was demoted as Trump's campaign manager after June's Tulsa, Oklahoma, rally.

New Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien has since imposed "a series of belt-tightening measures," The Times reported.

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President Donald Trump's reelection campaign has squandered its significant cash advantage over Joe Biden's rival presidential campaign, a New York Times investigation has found.

According to The Times, which spoke with dozens of current and former campaign aides and reviewed thousands of financial documents, the Trump campaign spent $800 million of its $1.1 billion war chest between the beginning of the year and July.

That's nearly three-quarters of its total funds spent with months of the campaign left.

After he won the Democratic primaries at a significant financial disadvantage to Trump, Biden is winning back ground, with a record-breaking $365 million fundraising haul in August.

According to the report, Biden has held a series of highly lucrative Zoom fundraisers during lockdown, which Trump has eschewed, aides said, because he doesn't like them.

The report detailed a series of massive spends by the campaign, which seem to be more about pleasing the president than winning over supporters. They include:

$11 million on ads during the February 7 Super Bowl to match spending by billionaire Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg, who later dropped out of the race.

$1 million on TV ads in Washington, DC, which is solidly Democratic. (But Trump is known to watch hours of TV a day in the White House, venting on Twitter about negative coverage on news networks and advertisements by political opponents attacking him.)

$110,000 spent on magnet-lined pouches in which campaign officials meeting Trump can store their cellphones so their conversations with the president cannot be recorded.

Lavish campaign headquarters in Virginia, where the campaign assembled a "large and well-paid staff."

According to the report, many of the spending decisions can be traced to Brad Parscale, who was demoted as the 2020 campaign chief after the president's June rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Parscale had billed the event as sold out, but the president spoke in a stadium that had rows of empty seats, with fears of the coronavirus likely depressing turnout. And a campaign by teenagers likely inflated expectations of how many people would show up.

Since campaign manager Bill Stepien replaced Parscale, he "has imposed a series of belt-tightening measures that have reshaped initiatives, including hiring practices, travel and the advertising budget," The Times reported.

While Parscale had a chauffeur-driven car while he was in the role, Stepien has taken a pay cut, according to The Times.

In a break with precedent, Trump launched his reelection campaign the day after he moved into the White House and has held campaign rallies throughout his time in office.

overtoosoon on September 8th, 2020 at 11:19 UTC »

In a break with precedent, Trump launched his reelection campaign the day after he moved into the White House, and has held campaign rallies throughout his four years in office.

Good governance was never considered as a strategy!

AndIAmEric on September 8th, 2020 at 11:17 UTC »

They went all in on trying to deflate Mike Bloomberg???

What a bunch of dumb fucks.

chrisdh79 on September 8th, 2020 at 11:13 UTC »

From the article: President Donald Trump's reelection campaign has squandered its significant cash advantage over Joe Biden's rival presidential campaign, a New York Times investigation has found.

According to The Times, which spoke to dozens of current and former campaign aides and reviewed thousands of finance documents, the Trump campaign has spent $800 million of its $1.1 billion war chest between the beginning of the year and July.

That's close to three-quarters of its total funds spent with several months of the campaign left to fight.

And having won the race as Democratic nominee at a significant financial disadvantage to Trump, Joe Biden is winning back ground, with a record breaking $365 million fundraising haul in August.