Trump campaign plans aggressive digital ad buy to counter DNC

The campaign told CNN the buy will be in the high seven figures and will be on outlets like YouTube, Hulu and the homepages of several prominent news websites.

Among the high profile purchases will be the takeover of the YouTube banner starting Tuesday as the DNC is ramping up.

Tim Murtaugh, the campaign's communications director, told CNN that the Trump team strategically took advantage of the fact that Democrats and the Biden campaign had not purchased time on these platforms, despite the fact that the events will be largely virtual next week.

The news of the buy was first reported by The New York Times.

The Trump campaign plans to counter these digital events with ads that will paint the Joe Biden/Kamala Harris ticket as too far to the left.

"It's great that Team Biden let the Trump campaign grab up the best premium real estate on the internet during Joe's big week," said Murtaugh. "We'll show millions of Americans exactly how the radical, leftist takeover of Joe Biden is now complete."

Murtaugh believes the volume of the buy is so vast and targeted that it has the potential to dwarf the Democratic convention.

View Trump and Biden head-to-head polling

"More people will see our digital content than will watch Joe Biden's convention itself," he said.

President Donald Trump plans to head to Old Forge, Pennsylvania, just outside of Joe Biden's hometown of Scranton, on Thursday — the same day the former vice president is expected to formally accept the Democratic presidential nomination.

Trump's campaign announced Saturday that Trump will deliver remarks Thursday in the key swing state at 3 p.m., ET, Thursday, only hours before Biden is scheduled to deliver his acceptance speech virtually at the DNC.

Biden will formally accept his party's nomination for president from Wilmington, Delaware, where he lives and served for years as a US senator, instead of Milwaukee, the original site of the convention, due to concerns caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The convention, which is from Monday to Thursday, will air two hours of programming from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET.