Trump’s campaign spending at half the rate of Clinton’s

Donald Trump doubled his campaign expenses last month, yet was still spending at a far slower clip than Hillary Clinton.

New finance documents show the Republican presidential nominee’s campaign spent about $18.5 million in July. By comparison, the Democratic presidential nominee spent about $38 million.

The New York businessman gave his campaign another $2 million in recent weeks. He’d pledged to contribute as part of a fundraising pitch to small donors, telling them he’d match their efforts up to that amount.

In all, his campaign brought in $37 million for the month. Clinton’s campaign raised $52 million.

Trump has continued to increase the size of his operation, putting $5 million this week into his first batch of TV ads. Clinton has been running general election ads for months.

Last month Trump brought on some new consultants and firms, July reports to the Federal Election Commission show.

At the end of July, the campaign paid $100,000 to Cambridge Analytica, a deep-dive data firm that did business with GOP opponent Ted Cruz. Hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer, who contributed $2 million to a pro-Trump super political action committee in July, is an investor in Cambridge.

The Trump filings also show some old ties.

Two weeks after the ouster of campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s campaign cut his firm, Green Monster Consulting, another $20,000 check. That’s about the same amount it had paid him each month while he was running the campaign.

At the time of the latest payment, Lewandowski was already on the payroll of CNN, where he is a political contributor.