Things were looking pretty sweet for the National Rifle Association in 2016. Thanks in part to a presidential campaign in which gun owners and gun rights advocates feared that liberals (i.e. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton) would strip them of their beloved guns, the NRA boasted record-breaking contributions.
What a difference a year makes.
According to tax records obtained by the Daily Beast, the NRA lost $55 million in income in 2017 compared to the year before. And while the NRA isn’t a broke bitch by any means, she may want to look into seasonal employment.
Let’s run the numbers:
Back in 2016, the NRA amassed $125 million in contributions. A year later, that number was $98 million—just 78 percent of what they previously made. And if you take away one single anonymous donor who chipped in $19 million (lord, let me have five minutes to shake those couch cushions), that number drops to 63 percent.
But the drop to pay attention to, the Daily Beast notes, is the drop in membership dues, which more than anything else could point to dwindling support. In 2016, the NRA raked in $163 million in dues. In 2017, under the first full year of a Donald Trump presidency, that number dropped by a quarter, to $128 million.
And all this as the NRA continues to try to make Dana Loesch and NRA TV—you know, that platform that gave us KKK hoodies on Thomas the Tank Engine—a thing. Relatedly, and remarkably, despite raking in hundreds of millions of dollars and the souls of GOP politicians across the country, the NRA managed to be in the red the last couple years.
In 2017, the NRA spent $18 million more than it made, which was an improvement on 2016, when it ran up a $46 million deficit.
Your girl can tote an AR-15, but she can’t balance a budget.