Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump released his first televised campaign ad Monday, marking the first time the billionaire has spent a significant chunk of his own fortune on paid advertising.
The 30-second ad will begin airing in the two earliest voting states — Iowa and New Hampshire — on Jan. 5, and is costing Trump more than $2 million per week. Until now, Trump had only spent $300,000 on a radio ad buy in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.
“We have spent the least amount of money and have the best results and this is the kind of thinking the country needs,” the celebrity candidate said in a statement Monday. “I am very proud of this ad, I don’t know if I need it, but I don’t want to take any chances because if I win we are going to make America great again.”
Trump’s ad reinforces his promise to “make America great again” by barring non-American Muslims from entering the U.S., building a wall along the Southern border and “cutting the head off ISIS” — all of which have stirred controversy throughout the 2016 election cycle.
According to RealClearPolitics’ latest national polling average, Trump leads his closest rival, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, by more than 15 percentage points. He is ahead of his Republican rivals in New Hampshire and South Carolina, but recently fell behind Cruz in the first-in-the-nation voting state of Iowa. Trump is second in the Washington Examiner‘s presidential power rankings.
