Shortly before the midterms in 2018, Facebook launched this tool. They call it the ad library.

It's a digital archive of political messaging. It's also a real-time calculator, tallying up how much each candidate is spending on the social network.

Andrew Morantz over at The New Yorker, he's been spending a lot of time in this archive,

watching the candidates, especially President Trump, make a case for themselves.

The general election hasn't even started, and the Trump campaign is already treating it

as if the general election is in full swing.

There are so many clips and posts cataloged here. Once you dive in, you could scroll pretty much forever.

So there were many weeks last year, for example, where the Trump campaign was spending a million dollars a week on Facebook and a million dollars a week on Google, meaning search ads and YouTube ads.

And the Democrats, even though there were 500 million of them, were essentially spending nothing.

Since the 2018 midterms, the president has spent more than $44 million on Google and Facebook advertising alone.

What did these ads look like?

Do you have a favorite digital ad?

Favorite is maybe not the term I would use.

But yeah, some of them are very standard.

You know, some of them are, you know, the president is keeping us safe or whatever.

There are ads for Trump-themed straws and ads pushing donor dinners with Melania.

But also ads that ask you to hold the corrupt Democrats accountable.

In the middle of impeachment, Trump's campaign started pushing ads like... ads that ask you to hold the corrupt Democrats accountable.

In the middle of impeachment, Trump's campaign started pushing ads like this one.

If the prosecutor's not fired, you're not getting the money.

Oh, son of a bitch, got fired.

But when President Trump... These ads claim President Trump is fighting corruption, while Joe Biden encouraged it.

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