MIAMI — Donald Trump’s aides are discussing the possibility of asking him to write his biggest check yet to his own campaign to fund an ad blitz, and the billionaire candidate is open to the possibility, according to three people close to the nominee.

While Trump’s campaign has experienced a surge in small-dollar fundraising this month that could make an infusion of personal cash unnecessary, major Republican donors are nervous after a rocky first debate against Hillary Clinton and could ramp up pressure on their nominee to invest in the air war.


Trump’s campaign last week said that it was planning a $140-million television and digital advertising push between this week and Election Day, in an effort to cut into the massive advertising advantage enjoyed by Clinton.

But entering this month, the campaign did not have the money in the bank to pay for the effort, which would represent by far its most ambitious advertising push of the 2016 election. Trump’s most recent Federal Election Commission filing shows that his campaign had only $50 million in the bank at the end of August.

Since then, his small-dollar online fundraising has been especially brisk, raising the prospect that Trump might not need to fund the ad buys from his own pocket — or might only need to cover part of it, according to the three people close to the candidate. They suggested that Trump is amenable to either possibility — even if it means writing his biggest check of the campaign to date.

Trump relied heavily on his own fortune through the bitter GOP primary, during which he loaned his campaign $43.5 million of his own money. A central tenet of his candidacy was that his ability to self-finance his White House bid made him independent from major donors to whom he suggested his rivals were beholden.

Since then, though, Trump has scaled back his self-financing, giving his campaign only about $2 million a month, which he has cast as putting up his own money to match contributions from small donors.

Republican insiders in interviews have expressed doubt about Trump’s willingness to inject larger sums of his own cash into the race.

His campaign issued another monthly $2-million challenge to small donors on Tuesday, promising in an email that their contributions “will be instantly matched for double the impact in our race to defeat Hillary Clinton.”

Indeed, in combination with the Republican National Committee, the campaign has invested heavily in a small-dollar online fundraising operation, which has produced big numbers, and has helped narrow Clinton’s gaping fundraising lead.

The Trump campaign declined to comment on its September fundraising or how much of his own money Trump was prepared to spend.

One of the people close to Trump said the real estate developer and reality TV star is “prepared to do whatever it takes personally to win. But the cash has been pouring in and we have a lot more cash than people think. Now, there’s actually cash there to pay for the $140 million.”

The person rejected a suggestion that the $140-million advertising plan was not realistic, but rather was intended to assuage worried donors and to worry Clinton’s forces.

“That was not a head fake,” said the person.

Still, Trump’s team has only slowly begun investing in some of the trappings of traditional presidential campaigns, and he continues to brag about how little he’s spent relative to Clinton.

The Democrat, Trump alleged during Monday’s debate has “spent hundreds of millions of dollars on negative ads on me, many of which are absolutely untrue.” Yet, he said, “the only gratifying thing is I saw the polls come in today, and with all of that money … I'm either winning or tied. And I’ve spent practically nothing.”

In fact, Trump’s campaign had spent $119 million overall through the end of August, but its advertising budget has been a fraction of that of Clinton’s campaign.

Through the end of last week, Clinton’s campaign had spent more than five times the $22 million that Trump has spent on TV and radio ads for the general election, according to Kantar Media.

And the gap appears to be widening, even as Trump’s fundraising has taken off. In the 10 days leading up to the debate, Clinton’s campaign aired 12,812 ads on local television in the 61 top markets, compared to 1,378 for Trump, according to the tracking company Media Monitors.

Trump's planned $140-million ad buy will focus on 13 states, including battlegrounds like Florida, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania, but also Maine, New Mexico and Wisconsin, according to an Associated Press report.

Jessica Ditto, a Trump campaign spokeswoman, told POLITICO that last week it began reserving $100 million in television advertising and $40 million in digital ads, with the first $15-million-worth placed Friday. “The broadcast/cable ratio will continue to fluctuate in line with targeting needs,” Ditto said.

Ad buying data provided to POLITICO does not reflect the full weight of the buy yet. It indicates that Trump’s campaign has purchased roughly $9.8 million in advertising between Tuesday and Election Day, compared to $41 million over that same period for Clinton’s campaign.