Donald Trump's presidential campaign is going into five more states with a new $10 million television ad buy. It's the largest for the Trump campaign so far, which has been relatively slow to invest in TV ads, relying instead on free media coverage and the Republican nominee's large social media following.
The campaign is now targeting the battleground states of New Hampshire, Iowa, Nevada, Virginia and Colorado, putting Trump on the air in a total of nine states. The campaign rolled out its first set of ads earlier this month in Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio and North Carolina.
The new Trump ad, called "Two Americas: Economy," portrays Clinton's policies as bad for the middle class, while promising new jobs if Trump is elected.
"In Hillary Clinton's America, the middle class gets crushed. Spending goes up. Taxes go up. Hundreds of thousands of jobs disappear. It's more of the same, but worse," a narrator says.
The ad buy comes at a time when Trump is polling behind Clinton in several key battleground states. In Colorado and Virginia, Clinton has a substantial lead in recent polls — so strong that a superPAC supporting her recently pulled ads from those states.
In a statement, Trump spokesman Jason Miller took aim at Clinton for spending much of the week fundraising, saying, "With Hillary Clinton off the campaign trail yet again this week and continuing to take many communities' votes for granted, we see this as the right time to show voters the benefits of an American economy under the leadership of Mr. Trump."
The Clinton campaign responded later Monday saying that Trump's "reckless approach to business has devastated working families and communities."
"He will do and say whatever is in his interest, even if it means swindling working families to make millions for himself," said Deputy Communications Director Christina Reynolds. "Now Trump is promising the same reckless, self-centered approach to running the country's economy — with large tax breaks for the wealthy, and a plan that independent experts say would cost millions of jobs."
Trump is also spending part of the week fundraising, with events scheduled on the West Coast early in the week.
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