After months of tight-fisted ad spending, Donald Trump's campaign is finally airing its first TV commercial.
The 30-second spot will air in four battleground states -- Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Florida -- for 10 days starting on Friday. The airtime cost the campaign nearly $5 million.
SEE ALSO:Donald Trump still hasn't spent a dime on commercials, but he promises to startIn typical Trump fashion, the ad paints a dystopian picture of an America flooded with Syrian refugees and undocumented immigrants -- many of them intent on committing crimes and reaping government services, a narrator warns.
The second half shifts the focus to Trump's vision for the country, which involves lots of images of military equipment and border patrol arrests.
"Make America safe again," the final tagline reads, next to a picture of the GOP nominee giving a stern-faced thumbs up.
Like much of what has been Trump's strategy, waiting until this late in the election cycle to spend money on TV ads flies in the face of conventional wisdom.
His Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, has racked up $61 million in advertising bills -- plus $43 million from outside groups spending on her behalf.
While pro-Trump PACs have run TV ads in support of the campaign in the past, their combined spend has totaled a relatively paltry $12.4 million.
The ad, which Trump announced earlier this week, comes after a major campaign shake-up and weeks of trailing in the polls.
Stephen Bannon, chairman of conservative news site Breitbart, took charge of the campaign on Wednesday, leading many to speculate that the publication would become even more of a media organ for the campaign than it already was.
Embattled campaign manager Paul Manafort resigned Friday morning.
Trump seemed to take an uncharacteristically measured and remorseful tone during a speech Thursday night, which may indicate yet another in a long series of attempted pivots.
As Voxpoints out, however, Trump's aggressive attack ad does not suggest the Republican candidate is looking to change his tune anytime soon.
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