“Everything you need to know about Hillary Clinton can be understood by this simple phrase: follow the money," Donald Trump said. | AP Photo Trump launches 'follow the money' attack

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa — In an effort to go steady his campaign after this week’s shaky debate, Donald Trump on Wednesday launched a coordinated attack casting Hillary Clinton as a corrupt pawn of major donors and special interests.

The attack — rolled out in a campaign speech here, followed by a barrage of press releases and a video, all of which made heavy use of the catchphrase “follow the money” — foreshadows a “renewed focus on populist themes in battleground states,” said a person close to the campaign.


It is similar to an argument that Republicans have been pushing him to embrace for months, and echoes perhaps his best exchange at the first debate, when he pressed Clinton on her support of trade deals and their effect on states like Pennsylvania and Ohio.

On Wednesday, Trump picked up the theme again, telling an enthusiastic midday crowd “Everything you need to know about Hillary Clinton can be understood by this simple phrase: follow the money.”

As the speech proceeded, the campaign blasted out five press releases in the span of 25 minutes, with the “follow the money” heading, starting with an overview of “ethical red flags” at the Clinton Foundation.

It was followed by detailed indictments of a uranium deal approved by Clinton’s state department after her foundation received large donations from people with stakes in the deal; Clinton’s relationship with Irish telecom billionaire Denis O’Brien; Clinton’s six-figure speaking engagements; and a 2009 deal over disclosing the identities of American account-holders that the State Department concluded with Swiss bank UBS, a Clinton Foundation donor.

Later Wednesday evening, the campaign posted a video on its Instagram and Facebook accounts highlighting an Associated Press report that half of the private individuals who landed meetings with Clinton during her tenure at State were Clinton Foundation donors.

After eschewing many standard messaging tools for most of its run, the campaign has occasionally coordinated the themes of Trump’s prepared remarks with bursts of press releases during his speeches in recent weeks.

The tactic returned again with Wednesday’s Iowa rally, and campaign spokesman Jason Miller said that the Trump campaign would be following the money right up to Election Day, highlighting new episodes of alleged corruption along the way.

“We’re going to go to anybody who has had financial dealings with the Clinton Foundation. Anybody who’s paid the Clintons who then received favors and official actions in return. Anybody who’s gotten rich by being friends with the Clintons based off of these official actions,” he said.

During the rally, Trump’s account retweeted a message from his “Official Team Trump” that included #FollowTheMoney and later on Wednesday, campaign manager Kellyanne Conway sent POLITICO a screenshot showing use of the hashtag across the United States, remarking, “This one is pretty cool.”

But at least one Republican operative close to the campaign, still fuming over Trump’s debate performance, was unimpressed with the attempt to turn the page.

“I think it’s a complete waste of time,” said the operative. “It’s not something like Benghazi that resonates with voters. I still can’t believe that Trump just completely dropped the ball on that.”

