Trump’s first TV ad features call for Muslim ban

Donald Trump has released his first TV advert for his presidential campaign, a 30-second video that prominently features his controversial call to temporarily halt the entry of all Muslims into the US.

“The politicians can pretend it’s something else, but Donald Trump calls it radical Islamic terrorism,” a stern-sounding male voice says in the video. “That’s why he’s calling for a temporary shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until we can figure out what’s going on.” 

In the advert, the male voice adds that Trump will “quickly cut the head of ISIS and take their oil” and “will stop illegal immigration by building a wall across our southern border that Mexico will pay for”.

The video also features grainy images of US president Barack Obama and Democrat presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton, as well as photos of the San Bernardino attackers, ISIS militants, a US warship firing cruise missiles, exploding buildings and undated footage of migrants apparently crossing the US-Mexican border.

It concludes with Trump offering his trademark call to "make America great again", delivered before a cheering crowd.

Trump remains top of presidential preference polls thanks to his seemingly unique appeal to a blue-collar segment of the Republican electorate, buttressed by near-nonstop news media coverage of his non-traditional campaign and his frequent controversial comments.

In a press release announcing the advert, Trump said that his campaign is currently $35 million "under budget". He added that he wasn't sure he needed to spend money on television commercials, but "I don't want to take any chances".

While Trump spent about $300,000 on three radio adverts last fall, his new television campaign will cost about $2 million a week in the early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire.

However, the New York Times recently reported that his campaign has yet to reserve airtime in either state – which casts a few doubts about the actual size of the advertising purchase.

Even if the advertising purchase does total the $2 million a week that Trump hopes for, that will at best only put him on roughly equal footing with rival Republican candidates in terms of paid media over the coming weeks.

A group supporting Texas Senator Ted Cruz has announced a $4 million ad buy over the coming weeks and a political action committee tied to former Florida Governor Jeb Bush's campaign has reserved more than $19m airtime between now and February.

The Bush team has already spent more than $41 million on TV adverts, and yet his poll numbers continue to fall. Ohio Governor John Kasich’s team has spent around $9 million and is now mired in single digits, well behind Trump.

According to NBC News, presidential campaigns spent almost $120 million combined on TV advertising in 2015, with Trump only accounting for the smallest fraction of that.