--- title: Donald Trump Spends $4 Million On First TV Ad Buy description: Donald Trump purchased a $4 million ad buy that will broadcast in Florida, Ohio, North Carolina and Pennsylvania canonical: https://time.com/4458268/donald-trump-4-million-first-tv-ad-buy/ author: Will Drabold article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-18T21:18:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:45:43.297Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump Spends $4 Million On First TV Ad Buy og:description: It's a fraction of what Hillary Clinton has already spent og:url: https://time.com/4458268/donald-trump-4-million-first-tv-ad-buy/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4a93d534d1599e99/6988a2bfab6d7791d66aaee1/trump7.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4000 og:image:height: 2250 og:image:alt: Donald Trump, 2016 Republican presidential nominee, reads from a teleprompter during a campaign event at Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio, on Aug. 15, 2016. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump Spends $4 Million On First TV Ad Buy twitter:description: It's a fraction of what Hillary Clinton has already spent twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4a93d534d1599e99/6988a2bfab6d7791d66aaee1/trump7.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Spends $4 Million on First TV Ad Buy > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Will Drabold](https://time.com/author/will-drabold/) ## Will Drabold Aug 18, 2016 9:18 PM UTC  Donald Trump, 2016 Republican presidential nominee, reads from a teleprompter during a campaign event at Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio, on Aug. 15, 2016. Donald Trump, 2016 Republican presidential nominee, reads from a teleprompter during a campaign event at Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio, on Aug. 15, 2016.Bloomberg via Getty Images by [Will Drabold](https://time.com/author/will-drabold/) ## Will Drabold Aug 18, 2016 9:18 PM UTC Donald Trump is returning to a familiar format: television. The Republican presidential nominee has purchased his first TV ads of the general election, which will start running on Friday in four swing states, according to [NBC News](http://www.nbcnews.com/card/trump-places-first-tv-ads-4-million-buy-n633796). The $4 million ad buy will broadcast Trump’s message in Florida, Ohio, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. The ads will run from Aug. 19-29. Trump’s ad buy 81 days before the election comes after Clinton has already spent $61 million on TV advertising, according to NBC News. Trump’s largest ad buys in each state are as follows: $441,000 in Orlando, Florida; $204,000 in Columbus, Ohio; $530,000 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; $347,000 in Charlotte, North Carolina. His first ad buy comes as Clinton [released a new ad](http://time.com/4457355/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-tax-return-ad/) on Thursday hitting Trump for not releasing his tax returns. \[[_NBC News_](http://www.nbcnews.com/card/trump-places-first-tv-ads-4-million-buy-n633796)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4458268/donald-trump-4-million-first-tv-ad-buy/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4458268/donald-trump-4-million-first-tv-ad-buy/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Spends $4 Million on First TV Ad Buy","datePublished":"2016-08-18T21:18:37.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:45:43.297Z","description":"It's a fraction of what Hillary Clinton has already spent","url":"https://time.com/4458268/donald-trump-4-million-first-tv-ad-buy/","keywords":["2016 Election","Hillary Clinton","2016 Election","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4a93d534d1599e99/6988a2bfab6d7791d66aaee1/trump7.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Will Drabold","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/will-drabold/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4a93d534d1599e99/6988a2bfab6d7791d66aaee1/trump7.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Donald Trump, 2016 Republican presidential nominee, reads from a teleprompter during a campaign event at Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio, on Aug. 15, 2016.","caption":"Donald Trump, 2016 Republican presidential nominee, reads from a teleprompter during a campaign event at Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio, on Aug. 15, 2016.","creditText":"Bloomberg via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4458268/donald-trump-4-million-first-tv-ad-buy/","name":"Donald Trump Spends $4 Million on First TV Ad Buy"}}]}] ```