Tycoon digs deep into pockets

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

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

Wednesday’s headlines were a telling tale of two buildings — Ms Clinton revealed she would hold her likely victory party under a vast glass ceiling while Mr Trump unveiled an alternative Washington address — just in case the White House eluded him.

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

“I feel really good, energised, working hard, we built this campaign over a year and a half, now we see the results of all that hard work,” Ms Clinton told reporters on board her campaign plane.

But Mr Trump took heart from a separate survey that shows him with a two-point lead in earlyvoting Florida, a state where races are often won and lost.

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

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

But first he set aside precious time on Wednesday for the grand opening of his new hotel in Washington, the Trump International.

“This election isn’t over before it’s actually over,” Ms Clinton said. “And I was struck today that Donald Trump is actually paying more attention to his business than to the campaign.”