Donald Trump Plane - H 2015
AP Images/InvisionDonald Trump is moving into the next stage of his GOP presidential run: TV advertising.
In an interview with The Washington Post published Wednesday, Trump said it was time his ads hit the airwaves.
“I have such a great concept — in fact, so good,” Trump told The Post. He declined to specify, the newspaper noted.
The former Apprentice host said he had originally budgeted up to $20 million through mid-September for television advertising, but his campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, assured The Post that the Trump camp would shell out much more than that as the year progressed.
“Whatever it takes,” he told The Post.
Related Stories
Trump hired an unidentified Florida-based advertising firm — which has never created political ads before — for his TV spots, according to The Post. Trump has proposed several concepts for ads that are in the works, the newspaper added.
A spokeswoman for Trump declined to offer additional information to THR, including when the ads would be rolling out.
His newest book, Crippled America, coming out later this month, will be the cornerstone of the campaign advertising strategy, The Post reported.
“It’s actually the hardest I’ve worked on a book since The Art of the Deal,” the billionaire businessman said. “I don’t want to have a stupid statement in the book that people are going to say, ‘Hey, why did he say that?’ “
In the interview, Trump acknowledged that running for office is not like running a business.
“It’s very unforgiving,” he told The Post. “If you make a mistake that can be very easily explained, it can still be turned around and then you have three bad days of press over something that actually wasn’t even a big deal.”
As for his TV ads persona, Trump will be his same outspoken self.
“It’s going to be the same thing,” Trump said. “You’ve got to have a personality. You’ve got to be able to speak your mind. You’ve got to have some thoughts that are correct.”
