This week I was forwarded an email from a listener to one of our other stations here at the Radio Ranch complaining that all he was hearing on that station was commercials for Vice President Kamala Harris–and no ads for former President Donald Trump. It was his argument that the law “requires” us to run as many ads for both candidates under the “equal time” provision. Being our resident expert on campaign advertising laws, I politely informed the man that “equal time” applies only to “free” air time–and not to paid advertisements–and that if the Trump campaign wanted to run ads, we would need to make available the same amount of time at the same advertising rates.
But as I also pointed out to the gentleman (who had made snide comments to the co-worker who originally tried to assuage his concerns), the Trump campaign is not buying much radio advertising in this area. I suggested he take up his concern with them–as he recognizes that little effort seems to be going into actually winning this campaign. I then supplied him with the FCC rules regulating political advertising, along with links to stories on Trump’s campaign spending far less money on advertising than the Harris campaign in all of Wisconsin, and experts asking where exactly all of those campaign donations are going–since they are not showing up on our radios or televisions.
Several sources have noted that Trump campaign finance reports list relatively few recipients of expenditures. LLC’s like American Made Media Consultants, Red Curve Solutions, and Launchpad Strategies are raking in tens of millions of dollars and–because they are private entities–are not at all required to publicly disclose how they are spending it. American Made was founded by Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and was “run” by his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump–who now chairs the Republican National Committee. Lara Trump’s first act in that role was to announce that all money raised by the RNC would be “combined” with money raised by the Trump campaign–most of which has been funneled to these mystery companies.
Reporters have been able to learn a bit more about Red Curve, which appears to exist only to pay Donald Trump’s legal fees. If those legal fees are tied to actual campaign business (even the frivolous challenges to 2020 vote counting in several states) those MAY be legitimate expenses. But if the money is going to Trump’s legal defense in the Stormy Daniels case, or the January 6th sedition case, or the E Jean Carroll sexual assault and defamation case, or the Trump Corporation financial fraud case, or the classified documents theft case, those are not legitimate campaign expenditures. But again, we likely will never know.
Not surprisingly, that “concerned listener” so worried about “fairness” offered no reply to my email. There wasn’t even a “thank you” for making him more informed, not just on campaign advertising rules, but also what appears to be the largest political grifting operation in the country’s history.
But even if the money flowing into the campaign isn’t being diverted to Trump’s personal accounts, the lack of real effort going into his operations shows a general laziness that definitely starts at the top. One need only look at the debate performances from the former President to see that no prep work was done. You can complain that Vice President Harris was “over-prepared” and had all of her lines memorized, but it certainly looked more professional, cogent, and organized than the rambling, disjointed replies offered by Trump.
Having gone through the process myself, I can tell you that debate prep is tough and boring. Answering the same question over and over, polishing your response, committing to memory the important facts and talking points, knowing what your opponent is going to say and how to counter it, requires discipline and effort. And those are two qualities no one has ever and will ever use to describe Donald Trump.
It doesn’t help the campaign that Trump himself isn’t willing to put in that work. And with his expectation that those around him never challenge him, there is no way things are going to get better. It also doesn’t help that he and his acolytes have alienated themselves from any reputable campaign advisers–leaving social media blowhards and agitators to provide any direction. Fox News appears to be in charge of coming up with Trump’s “information” and talking points.
Another indication of the lack of effort in the Trump camp is the extreme gap in infrastructure and ground work between the two campaigns. The political machine that Harris inherited from President Joe Biden has well-staffed field offices across every state. Canvassing efforts are in place in every county in every battle-ground state–and an increased effort will be made to boost turnout in Democratic areas buried in deep red states. Several reports have pointed out the Trump campaign has very few of those resources in place–continuing a pattern established in his first two Presidential campaigns. The strategy appears to be keep as many people from voting rather than trying to get as many people to vote for you.
I would say that Republicans down-ballot are VERY concerned about this lack of commitment. Even those that are trying to distance themselves from MAGA World still need to have people come to the polls in order to win. Sometimes that requires frequent contacts with undecided voters, reminders to request an absentee ballot, or to get a confirmation that a person will head to the polls on Election Day. And that is a lot of hard work and organization–two qualities that Trump and even his most-ardent supporters lack.
If the results on November 5th turn out the way polls have indicated they will since Harris took over the top spot on the ticket in July, Donald Trump, our “concerned listener” and the rest of MAGA World will blame election workers, the media, and illegal immigrants voting for their loss–when it plainly and simply will be due to theft of campaign resources, and the lack of will to put in the minimum amount of work needed to win.
