August 28, 2024 03:11 PM UTC

Unserious Candidate Requires Unserious Campaign to do Unserious Things

• 2 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

More has been reported on this story — and there’s a new update — since the story first leaked out on Monday.

We’ll show you the Tweet first, so you can gauge your own reaction:

As USA Today explained further:

The Trump campaign bought $48,000 worth of advertising in Florida in the West Palm Beach media market where the former president lives, according to ad-tracking firms AdImpact and Medium Buying. The 15-second cable ads will begin airing Tuesday.

Democrats jumped on the ad buy to argue that Trump’s team is nervous about Florida, where a pair of new polls show a tighter race than expected.

Florida Democratic Party Executive Director Phillip Jerez shared details about the Trump ad buy on X and wrote: “Donald Trump is scared of losing Florida.”

We don’t think this ad buy is indicative of any serious concern from Donald Trump’s Presidential campaign that he might lose Florida. If that truly is the motivation behind the ad buy, then there is a bigger story to be told here; you don’t spend a measly $48k on a television ad buy in an area that you NEED to win in November.

No, this ad buy was motivated by something else…and we weren’t the only ones to make the assumption. As The Bulwark explains:

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.

In short, the Trump campaign bought ad time in an area that will play no role in the outcome of the 2024 Presidential race merely so that The Big Orange Guy and his donors could see him on TV and think that his campaign was doing cool stuff.

Very stable geniuses all around.

And the story keeps getting better. The ad below, from the campaign of Democratic Presidential candidate Kamala Harris,  begins running tomorrow…in the Palm Beach/Fort Pierce media market:

We’d bet a decent amount of money that Trump is soon going to demand a much bigger TV buy to run more of his own ads in his own neighborhood — for no reason other than pure, raw vanity.

But please, tell us again about how Trump is the only person who can effectively lead our country. You know, once he’s done whining.