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.

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do things differently in the aftermath of a political crisis: Watergate. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after, and go deep on, stories others don’t. And we’re a nonprofit newsroom because we knew corporations and billionaires would never fund the journalism we do. Our reporting makes a difference in policies and people’s lives changed.

And we need your support like never before to vigorously fight back against the existential threats American democracy and journalism face. We’re running behind our online fundraising targets and urgently need all hands on deck right now. We can’t afford to come up short—we have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

Please help with a donation today if you can—even just a few bucks helps. Not ready to donate but interested in our work? Sign up for our Daily newsletter to stay well-informed—and see what makes our people-powered, not profit-driven, journalism special.

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