September 21, 2015

Donald Trump Talked to Twitter Today and It Wasn’t Insane. His Campaign May Be Doomed.

David Crane/ZUMA

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In an attempt to showcase a bit of social media savvy—which thus far has been astonishingly lacking—Donald Trump’s campaign stopped by Twitter today to give voters an opportunity to freely query the Republican front-runner using the hashtag #AskTrump.

While the resulting responses didn’t exactly match Trump’s usual penchant for offensive, unfiltered candor, the poorly lit videos did provide a closer glimpse at what a Trump White House and its policies could look like. Take a look at what your future with President Trump may have in store:

But don’t let these videos fool you—#AskTrump was roundly ridiculed by the internet. Here are some of the best takes:

Overall, the chat was remarkably unremarkable. Does this newly tame Trump signal that his momentum is finally dwindling? Stay tuned.

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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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