The Washington Post has an excellent ARTICLE today dissecting Trumpensteins complaint about the way the media is covering his campaign. He has been whining that the press has changed the way they cover him, and it’s costing him poll points and votes. The Post takes him to the shed on this, showing that the media hasn’t changed the way they cover him, the game has changed. Trump is still running a primary campaign in a general election, and his toxic message is not converting general election voters outside of his already loyal 40% ceiling.
But they went into detail on his spending, and this is what really caught my eye and captured my attention. The Post published a bar graph based on information obtained from FEC filings on expenditures and it’s fascinating. Here is the graph;
The first thing that caught my eye was advertising spending. From Jan-Apr of this year, advertising spending was about 30-50% of his total expenditures. Makes sense, he’s trying to put away the competition. He sealed the deal in April. In May his ad spending dipped to what appears to be about 10-12%, and it basically disappeared in June. This is insane. You should be up on the air defining your opponent while they’re still busy in their primary, setting your own narrative. But in the case of The Orange Julius it is also understandable. Trump was still “self funding”, he had not started fundraising, either with or without the RNC and he was tapped out. Understandable, but still an opportunity missed.
The second thing that caught my eye was payroll. This has remained almost stable since the beginning of his campaign, and the expenditure is exceedingly small. This is patently absurd. A small, shoestring staff is expected early in the race, especially with a large field, but once you surge to the top, and your victory appears more likely, you simply must begin staffing for a ground game, as well as increasing your HQ campaign staff for additional responsibilities, not just for the primaries, but so they’re already in place and working when the general election comes around. It is clear from his salary spending that he has done nothing at all to prepare for the general election, and it’s killing him. Even if he started now, he’s dead. It takes time to find qualified ground hands and get them space. And then it will take them time to round up volunteers and get them trained up and on the phones or streets. And time is something Trump is running out of.
The third thing that almost made my eyes pop out of my head was ”Management”. This has slowly but steadily increased since December. WTF for?! The payroll figures show he isn’t renting staff and field operations in battleground states, why do that if there’s nobody to staff them, that’s what the RNC is for. So, why are the Management costs going up? How many people do you need sitting around for Mein Furor to totally ignore. I’m starting to smell more non existent “press spokesmen” in the campaign. Wonder how much they’re being paid?
Field/Data/Fundraising spiked in June, after being fairly sedentary for most of the campaign. Because there is no indication that he is increasing his staffing or ground game, I can only deduce that this spike was for the initial start up costs in setting up a national fundraising online and mail operation. At least he’s trying.
But the one that made me choke was his travel expenses. They are obscene! When my daughter and son in law moved from CA to HI, they were worried about their aging dog making the trip in a kennel for 6 hours. They rented a private jet so she could ride in the cabin with them. I don’t remember exactly, but I believe it ran them somewhere between $8-10K. A charter jet from NY to IA could probably be had for about $3500-4K since the trip bills are based on air miles traveled, A trip to PA from NY would cost even less. And chartering the jet is all inclusive, it includes the jet fuel, the landing fees, the pilots and the flight attendant.
Landing fees aren’t cheap, and they increase based on the size and parking space required for the aircraft. I worked for United Airlines for 20 years, and landing and departure fees as well as gate and parking space were a significant expenditure. This is why Trumps travel expenses are so outlandish. A private corporate jet is gaudy enough, a personally altered commercial Airbus jet is outlandish. I wouldn’t be surprised if he spends more in jet fuel just to get from NY to IA than it cost my daughter and son in law for a 6 hour flight. Trump is soaking his “small” donors for his own ego satisfaction and petty personal comfort. Little wonder the Big Donors are not happy about funding him.
So to summarize, in one wonderful graph the Washington Post pretty much confirmed what we all already suspected. It is a shadow campaign, with no serious intent or effort to actually get Trump elected. In other words, it’s a political Trump U..
Thanks as always for reading!
Sunday, Aug 14, 2016 · 8:20:35 PM +00:00
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Murfster35
My many sincere to icallbs!!! I’m an old fart, and my eyes aren’t what they used to be...Those pastel colors are in some cases very similar and icallbs brought it to my attention that I had misread “Management” for Rent”...Either way it’s shady, but I have gone back in and corrected the incorrect paragraph...