WASHINGTON (NYTIMES) – The super PAC supporting US President Donald Trump’s reelection is planning a US$10 million (S$14.35 million) advertising spree to attack former vice-president Joe Biden in three Rust Belt states that were crucial to the president’s 2016 victory, officials with the group said Wednesday (April 1) .

The announcement about the ads – which will appear in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin – came after a growing chorus of complaints from White House officials, campaign aides and a wide range of the president’s allies about a lack of activity from the group, America First.

Outside Democratic groups have started airing blistering ads criticising Mr Trump’s belated response to the coronavirus and telling Americans that the country needs to elect a leader it “can trust.”

Mr Trump campaign officials have long been frustrated by what they see as lagging fundraising by America First, which had raised US$106 million as of its last filing on Jan 31.

The former head of the Small Business Administration, Ms Linda McMahon, left that post last spring to become the top fundraiser for the group. The hope was that as a self-made billionaire, Ms McMahon would be able to make multimillion dollar requests of other donors as a peer. But even with Ms McMahon at the helm, little has improved, officials say.

Campaign officials also see a clear opportunity in the midst of a pandemic to draw a contrast between Mr Trump and Mr Biden, the likely Democratic nominee, that they think has not been fully capitalised on, and that would typically be a job taken on by the outside group.

“We cannot let Biden hide in the shadows,” Mr Brad Parscale, the Trump campaign manager, said on a conference call with surrogates this week, which was described by a person on the call. “We need to pick up the pace on him.”

Mr Parscale noted that the current pause in campaigning because of the virus was an opportunity to reach a potentially crucial percentage of voters who hadn’t yet formed an opinion of Mr Biden. He encouraged surrogates who are going on television to not just praise Mr Trump’s leadership but to “double down on Biden during this as a contrast.”

Campaign finance rules prohibit coordination between the campaign and the super PAC. But the super PAC has been slow to mount any attack on Mr Biden, campaign allies and other Republicans said.

“The president has the attention of the entire country right now at an unprecedented level even for him,” said Mr Nicholas Everhart of Medium Buying, a firm that places advertising and tracks spending. “But the flip side of that coin is that TV – particularly cable and broadcast news – ratings are soaring, and attack ads from Unite Our Country and Priorities USA are pummelling the president in a vacuum.”

Unite Our Country is a relatively new group that was set up to support Mr Biden’s campaign, and Priorities USA has served as the main Democratic super PAC since President Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign. Both groups have taken to the airwaves with spots aimed at defining Mr Trump before the general election.

While the pandemic has overshadowed political news, Mr Everhart added, “it doesn’t mean that the ads running between the constant TV watching going on simply don’t matter or don’t have an impact,” especially when they raise questions about the president’s management of a crisis in real time.

Some Republicans defended America First, saying it had the thankless task of raising money for the president when Mr Trump and his family members frequently participate in fundraisers, leaving little incentive for big donors to fork over millions of dollars to the group when they can gain access to the president for far less.

Mr Brian Walsh, the president of America First Action, defended Ms McMahon.

“Linda McMahon is working extremely hard every day to support President Trump,” he said in a statement. “She is an extraordinary leader and huge asset to our organisation. Any suggestion otherwise is misguided.”

Democrats have also registered the lack of activity.

“It has been surprising, given that you have so many donors that are writing seven- and eight-figure checks to the Senate leadership funds, that they’re not doing the same for the Trump campaign,” said Mr Guy Cecil, the chairman of Priorities USA.

He said that was probably partly because the campaign itself has been so successful at raising money that big donors “don’t think they have to.”

Mr Cecil said his decisions about when to go up with advertisements and how much to spend – his group announced another US$10 million ad buy Wednesday and has already spent about US$19 million nationwide – were based more on what Mr Trump was doing in the briefing room than on any moves by the super PAC on the other side that his group was competing against.

“We have a presidential campaign that’s been raising for the general since the beginning, and a president who uses medical news conferences as pep rallies,” Mr Cecil said, acknowledging that it posed a real challenge for Democrats.

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