Trump Camp Spends Tens of Thousands to Air Ads In and Around Mar-a-Lago
Florida’s not at risk. But staffers are risking anger from the boss (and some donors) if he doesn’t see his own ads.
DONALD TRUMP’S CAMPAIGN is set to run cable news ads this week so they can be seen at the ex-president’s Mar-a-Lago club and surrounding environs.
The South Florida expense is likely to have no impact on the course of the election. Palm Beach County is a Democratic stronghold in a Republican state that Trump has little chance of losing. But Trump’s staff is at some risk of incurring his wrath if he—and his Palm Beach pals—don’t see his ads at Mar-a-Lago, a factor that insiders say compelled the purchase.
“This is more about keeping the donors happy than the principal. There’s a lot of donors in Palm Beach,” said a campaign insider, who noted that Trump himself would not be in Palm Beach much this week. “If spending $50k gets us $5 million, that’s good ROI. If it makes the boss happy, too, then good.”
According to a political operative familiar with the purchase, the ad—the content of which is unknown—is slated to run on CNN, CNBC, Fox Business, and Fox News. The spot is 15 seconds long and, according to that operative, the purchase will cost the Trump campaign about $47,000 dollars (though the figure is subject to change).
A Trump spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
That type of expenditure will be relatively minor for a campaign committee that has raised $268.5 million in total between January 2023 and July 31, 2024. But the fact that the campaign felt the need to make it at all illustrates some of the priorities undergirding their operation.
Trump aides have made similar investments before. During the 2020 campaign, the Trump operation ran $400,000 worth of television ads on D.C. cable so that then-president Trump and congressional Republicans could get a psychic boost.
“We want members of Congress and our DC-based surrogates to see the ads so they know our strong arguments for President Trump and against Joe Biden,” then-spokesman Tim Murtaugh said at the time.
Washington, D.C. was at no risk of going for Trump then, just as Florida is at little risk of slipping from his grasp now. Barack Obama was the last Democrat to win Florida, back in 2012, and since then the state’s voter preference and voter rolls have grown more Republican. The state has 672,000 more registered Republicans than Democrats, a record advantage, and the GOP controls every statewide elected seat.
Palm Beach County, which Trump lost by almost 13 percentage points in 2020, is the largest and bluest of the five counties in the Palm Beach media market, which Trump lost by less than 4 points when he carried the state overall by 3.3 points.
Florida Democrats relished the prospect of Trump blowing money in the West Palm Beach area, which consultant Kevin Cate predicted weeks ago.
“I think Trump spends first TV dollars in Florida (for his ego and against his team’s advice). And that’s how you’ll know we’re in landslide territory,” Cate said in an August 26 X post that he re-upped on Monday.
With reporting by Marc Caputo.