Trump allies worry re-election campaign is low on cash as advertising pulled in key states: report

According to a report from the New York Times, allies of Donald Trump are questioning how much cash his re-election campaign has on hand with the election less than sixty days away. As the post-Labor Day drive for the White House kicks into gear, the president's campaign has dialed back television advertising at a time when many voters are finally paying attention, which has caused some consternation and worries among supporters of the president.

New campaign manager Bill Stepien has pulled back that outreach after taking over for former Trump 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale who was forced out of his position after spending millions to promote the sitting president only to see his poll numbers go into a nosedive as former Vice President Joe Biden has surged ahead.

Noting that the Biden campaign is jumping heavily into the fray after raking in $365 million in campaign donations in August, the Times reports the Trump campaign is still trying to find a strategy under Stepien.

"The Trump campaign is expected to increase television spending next week, but several Republicans said that Bill Stepien, Mr. Trump’s campaign manager since July, was taking a cautious approach after the former leadership spent huge sums on television and digital ads earlier this year, to no discernible effect," the report states. "The light television spending and advertising blackouts in some key states have mystified allies, raising questions about how much cash the campaign has in the bank."

Adding to Trump's woes is his inability to reach voters outside of his base, with the Times reporting, "Mr. Trump’s campaign advisers maintain that their private surveys are more encouraging than public polling. But while Mr. Trump’s swerve toward a strident law-and-order message has helped him consolidate conservative support, his rhetoric about rioting in a handful of cities does not appear to have swayed moderates, strategists in both parties said."

"Allies of Mr. Trump believe there is virtually no chance that he can win the popular vote, and they have seen some states on his victorious 2016 map shift markedly away from them. They are particularly pessimistic about Michigan, which Mr. Trump narrowly won four years ago, and are looking to flip Nevada, which has many white voters without college degrees, and especially Minnesota, the state he lost by the closest margin four years ago and the site of weeks of unrest following the police killing of George Floyd," the Times notes.

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