The chart above shows the campaign spending by Donald Trump over the past year. The red portions show his spending on advertising. Note that since he was assured of the Republican nomination, he has spent very little on advertising -- and in June 2016 spent almost nothing. The staff payroll has also not increased -- meaning he still is not establishing a significant ground force to get people to the polls.
There are two areas where his spending has increased -- payments to his campaign management (dark gray) and spending to raise money (green). I have to wonder how much he really wants to win. Advertising and establishing a ground get-out-the-vote organization will help him far more than paying his managers more money -- and raising money won't help if it's not spent the right way.
So, how's he doing since June? In July, he raised $37 million, and spent about $18.5 million -- none of it on advertising. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton raised $52 million, and continued her barrage of campaign advertising. Trump finally did buy $5 million dollars worth of advertising in the middle of August. Is it too little and too late?
Trump seems to think he can run his campaign like his economic plan -- give big money to the top and expect everything to somehow magically work out. He's either very stupid or he's getting a lot of bad advice -- maybe both.
