--- 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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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=a7e33328-f157-4254-921d-7cb851292f83&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) 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"}}]}] ```