By March 16, 2016, more than thirty states and territories had had their primaries or caucuses. Trump by then had won 1,448 delegates—comfortably past the 1,237 required to be the GOP nominee. Yet he had spent only $10 million on television advertising. (Jeb Bush had spent $82 million on advertising alone. By the time he was done, he and his allied super PAC had spent a whopping $130 million.) How can anyone run in thirty contests—and win—by only spending $10 million on advertising? It’s the Earned Media, Stupid. By the time he’d locked up the nomination in March, Trump had received $1.9
...more
