Trump's campaign spent almost twice as much on hats as it did on polling
On Monday, Donald Trumpclaimed he's polling better with women than with men, and that reports to the contrary are "very inaccurate." In fact, a recent ABC News/Washington Post poll showed Clinton ahead with women voters by 20 points.) When it comes to polling, Trump seems to be oblivious, and a new report from the Post makes it pretty clear why.
According to Federal Elections Commission filings, Trump's campaign has spent $1.8 million on polling from June 2015 to September 2016. By contrast, it has spent $3.2 million on "Make America Great Again" hats.
In total, his campaign spent $15.3 million on "collateral," which includes Trump hats, Trump T-shirts, Trump signs, and other merchandise to promote its candidate — that's more than it's spent on any other category, including field data and payroll. Here's what that looks like:
As the Posts's Philip Bump notes, "Nothing encapsulates Trump's primary and general election campaigns more neatly than his spending on collateral generally, and hats specifically — the campaign in a nutshell."
See photos of those hats:
