Donald Trump has released his first television ad as the candidates hoping to be the next US president hit the campaign trail with just weeks to go until the first votes are cast.
The advertisement will begin airing on Tuesday in the early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire, where voters hold intra-party votes on February 1 and February 9.
The ad focuses on Trump's controversial pledges to ban Muslims from entering the United States in the wake of a terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California last month and to build a wall to keep out illegal immigrants from Mexico.
"He'll quickly cut the head off Isis and take their oil," a narrator declares in the ad, using a common acronym for the Islamic State terrorist group.
"And he'll stop illegal immigration by building a wall on our southern border that Mexico will pay for."
Trump has soared to the top of polls of potential Republican presidential candidates and dominated media coverage with a series of controversial statements that run in the face of traditional political logic.
The billionaire businessman has also sought to portray himself as being above the normal political fray without the need to raise millions of dollars from wealthy donors.
"I am very proud of this ad, I don't know if I need it, but I don't want to take any chances because if I win we are going to Make America Great Again," he said in a statement.
US voters will chose candidates for each of the major political parties in a series of state-by-state votes beginning in February ahead of general elections pitting the Republican and Democratic nominees in November.
