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'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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