Do 14% of NYT Readers Really Not Recognize Donald Trump?

The New York Times had a “Can You Identify These Celebrities” quiz on its home page today, and since I’ll be up all night and I’m bored, I took it. Here’s what it showed me at the end:

Assuming they aren’t putting us on, only 86 percent of Times readers recognized Donald Trump. How is this possible? Trump has been a New York City fixture for decades and he is, as some of you may know, currently the president of the United States. I figure there are two possibilities:

  • About 14 percent of Times readers are the kind of annoying twits that simply refuse to acknowledge Trump’s existence even to the extent of typing his name in a box.
  • Times readers truly live in such a bubble that about 14 percent of them don’t recognize Trump.

Opinions? Other alternatives? While you’re pondering this, you might also want to ponder this:

The overall trend is clear: the younger you are, the fewer candidates you recognize, despite the fact that younger cohorts tend to be more Democratic and ought to have more interest in the Democratic primary. But only about 30 percent of Millennials recognize Elizabeth Warren and less than half recognize Joe Biden. Despite the hype, it appears that young people remain relatively uninterested in politics, just like they always have. They can “OK boomer” us all they want, but if they keep this up it’s boomers who are going to elect our next president, whether anyone likes it or not.

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“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things it doesn’t like—which is most things that are true.

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PLEASE—BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things it doesn’t like—which is most things that are true.

We’ll say it loud and clear: At Mother Jones, no one gets to tell us what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please do your part and help us reach our $150,000 membership goal by May 31.

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