Donald Trump Hits Radio Airwaves In Early Primary States With Ads

Donald Trump is going up on the air with ads for the first time in the campaign, but so far at least they’re just radio ads that will run in several early primary states:

Donald Trump pitches himself as someone who “learned the values of hard work, determination and faith at an early age” in one of two radio ads previewed Thursday exclusively on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

The Trump campaign on Wednesday announced $300,000 in radio ad buys in the early states of New Hampshire, Iowa and South Carolina.

In the first of two ads, a female narrator intones: “Donald Trump is running for president because politicians are all talk and no action. They will never make our country great again.”

Both ads made reference his stance on illegal immigration. In the first, the narrator says, “He’ll stop illegal immigration and drug trafficking by building a wall on our southern border. And he will make Mexico pay for it.”

“He will negotiate great trade deals and make our military so strong no country will ever mess with us,” the narration continues.

On foreign policy, “Donald Trump will protect Israel, and brutally and quickly cut the head off of ISIS.”

The ad concludes by declaring that Trump is “self-funding his campaign.” “He will only be responsible to the American people — not special interests and lobbyists.

You can listen to the first ad and the Trump-narrated ad at the respective links, and while they’re unlikely to appeal to people who are already inclined to support Trump or Republicans in general, they do what I would characterize as a fairly good job of putting across the messages that Trump has been hitting on since launching his campaign. Obviously, $300,000 isn’t a large amount of money, particularly with someone of Trump’s alleged resources, but that’s likely a fairly solid investment in radio time in markets in states like Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina that likely aren’t very expensive to begin with. What will be interesting to see is if and when Trump actually hits the air with television ads, and how much of his money he’s willing to put on these media efforts rather than relying on free media as he has been for the past four months.

Of course, many have argued that the fact that Trump may not be spending heavily on media is a sign that he’s not really serious about the campaign, but the other side of the argument is that it didn’t really make much sense for someone with his name recognition to spend money on advertising. This would seem to be especially true given how willing and eager cable media, and broadcast stations in the early states, are to given him free air time. Why pay for what you can get for free, after all?

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Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.