May 22, 2020

Will Donald Trump Ever Break 45 Percent Approval?

The more things stay the same, the more they stay the same:


Nothing matters. Except for an odd little blip in April, Joe Biden has been about eight points ahead of Donald Trump all year, and he still is. I don’t think this is meaningful as an actual predictor of the election, but it’s fascinating that Trump consistently polls around 40 percent no matter what and no matter when:

Two years ago Trump’s approval rating was 42 percent. Today it’s . . . 43 percent.

The Republican strategy for the rest of the year appears to be a repeat of 2016, opening up endless “investigations” into Obamagate, Ukraine, Hunter Biden, etc. etc., in hopes that a continuous dribble of manufactured leaks will draw the attention of the national press and keep Democrats on the ropes. And it might work! It all depends on whether the press learned anything from the debacle of four years ago. I’m not sure I’m willing to put money on that.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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