Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump will forego launching television ads for the time being, and has chosen instead to reach voters in the three earliest primary states through radio ads.
The New York businessman told Fox News’ Sean Hannity Tuesday evening that voters could expect to see him launch ads “over the next two days.” His campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, has since confirmed that Trump will soon debut 60-second ads on local airwaves in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina and run them over the next two weeks.
According to The New York Times, the first to report the details of the upcoming ads, Trump does not plan to attack any of his opponents in the initial ad buy. However, the brash businessman hinted to Fox News that future ads could feature personal attacks.
“If they hit me, I will hit them at least as hard, and maybe double and triple as hard,” Trump said of his rivals on Fox News. “I think the negative ads are going to hurt the Republicans much more so than it’s going to hurt me.”
Trump’s decision to court voters with campaign advertisements comes as retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson has toppled Trump in Iowa and inches closer to doing the same in New Hampshire.
For the first time in more than 100 consecutive days, the real estate mogul fell to second place in Wednesday in the RealClearPolitics index of national presidential polls. Trump has also fallen to fourth place in the latest Washington Examiner presidential power rankings.
