• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, September 10, 2015

Donald Trump says CNN should donate much of its big advertising bounty from the next Republican debate to armed force veterans.

Reports say the next Republican presidential debate will set back advertisers up to $200,000 for a 30-second commercial on CNN -- this versus CNN’s usual average $5,000 price tag for a prime-time 30-second commercial.

Why? Because, out of nowhere, the first debate on Fox News Channel pulled in a massive 24 million viewers -- virtually all to do with Trump’s drama and controversial remarks. CNN expects to get some of the same viewership for the second debate, on Sept. 16.

In a letter to Jeff Zucker, president of CNN Worldwide, Trump says: "While I refuse to brag, and as you know very well, this tremendous increase in viewer interest and advertising is due 100% to 'Donald J. Trump.'"  

We don’t know what the actual commercial load will be for the two-hour event on CNN. But even at modest levels — say 12 minutes per hour — that’s $4.8 million per hour, around $10 million for the debate. The earlier debate among other Republican candidates is priced at around $50,000 for 30-second commercial. So we should add, say, another $2.4 million.

That’s a nice bit of change for the veterans -- some $13 million. But if the “billionaire” Donald Trump really wants to help, perhaps he should sacrifice every last political advertising dollar he spends on television to the veterans as well.

Maybe he can convince, or shame,  other candidates into doing the same because, after all, there is plenty of money to be had. Top fundraisers are predicting the total presidential campaign could get to $5 billion -- more than double the last Presidential campaign in 2012.

Crazy, you say? How about half that amount? A quarter? A tenth?

To be sure, much of the $5 billion isn’t coming from the pockets of the candidates themselves, but from donors, and separate PAC advertising money -- even though Trump says much, if not all, of his campaign’s dollars will in fact be coming from his own pockets.

Trump says CNN should be airing the debates as a “public service” to citizens. I agree. But let’s go further: Presidential candidates set aside TV and other advertising for donation -- in the name of “public service.”