Trump digs deep to defy Clinton pace

TAMPA,

Republican nominee Donald Trump has pledged to pour millions of his own dollars into his presidential bid, in defiance of the seemingly unstoppable momentum building behind Hillary Clinton.

With less than two weeks before polling day and with early voting underway in several states, the Democratic nominee remains comfortably on course to become America’s first female president.

And headlines told a telling tale of two buildings: Clinton revealed where she will hold her likely victory party and Trump unveiled an alternative Washington address — just in case the White House eludes him.

The latest rolling poll average tracker RealClearPolitics showed Clinton extending her national lead in a four-way race against Trump and two outsiders to 5.9 percentage points — pointing to a clear electoral college victory.

But the former secretary of state’s rival, a 70-year-old Manhattan real estate mogul, took heart from a separate new survey that shows him with a two-point lead in early-voting Florida, a state where races are often won and lost.

“We are going to have, I think, a tremendous victory,” Trump told CNN.

Pressed on whether he will open his own wallet to match an onslaught of Clinton ads, Trump said he will have spent $100 million (Sh10.1 billion) of his own money by election day, a sum which would imply him digging much deeper than he has so far.

Trump was to speak in the swing state of North Carolina, but first he set aside precious time for the grand opening of his new hotel in Washington, the Trump International.

Hundreds of journalists covered the grandiose re-opening of the former post office, a stone’s throw from the White House, but many mocked Trump for focusing on his business so close to polling.

Clinton’s camp, meanwhile, announced that she would await the results on November 8 at the vast Jacob K Javits Convention Centre in New York, which has a literal “glass ceiling” to match the metaphorical barrier she plans to shatter on behalf of women.

Underlining her confident determination, Clinton marked her 69th birthday campaigning in Florida, speaking to a capacity crowd in Lake Worth before flying to Tampa on the Gulf Coast.