The Excuses Are Flying High in Trumpworld

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Watching Donald Trump make excuses for yet another business failure is edifying. Here’s Trump on why he lost in Iowa:

I think we could’ve used a better ground game, a term I wasn’t even familiar with….But people told me my ground game was fine. And I think by most standards it was.

Hey, “people” told him his ground game was fine! And it was. By most standards. Anyway, Iowa doesn’t really matter. And Ted Cruz cheated. And the grass was wet. And the sun was in his eyes.

This is Trump all over. He hops from one failure to another, always with a handy excuse. Football is a lousy business. Eastern Airlines ripped me off. The Plaza would have done great if the economy hadn’t turned down. Atlantic City was overbuilt. I never really had anything to do with Trump University.

This is the same guy who thinks that running America will be child’s play. It’s so easy. Just watch. But he’s such a lousy manager that he never bothered to learn what a “ground game” is—which is roughly the equivalent of understanding about food costs if you run a restaurant.

I wouldn’t hire Donald Trump to run a lemonade stand, let alone the United States of America. I don’t think I could stand the pity party. He needs to take his daddy issues to a shrink, not the Oval Office.

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I'm hopeful because of readers like you. Will you pitch in today?

We see the headlines on a weekly basis: the claw backs in public media, the gutting of The Washington Post, the bending over backwards to appeal to Trump and his allies.

But not here.

When Mother Jones started publishing 50 years ago, our founders made a critical decision: to be a reader-supported nonprofit. They knew that no corporate owner would be interested in a muckraking newsroom; they also knew that no muckraking newsroom would be interested in following the agenda of a corporate owner.

And so, we’ve been reader-funded for half a century. We rely on contributions from our readers—readers like you—whether it’s $50, or $15 a month, or whatever fits your budget. People give what they can, and every donation makes a difference for our newsroom, which has grown tremendously—in size and reach and renown—since its inception in 1976.

You may be wondering: What does it take to publish an investigation? And what does my donation actually fund? The answers are one and the same: It takes people, resources, and time. And that’s what your donation funds directly.

Every donation Mother Jones receives from readers fortifies our newsroom, whether we’re covering underreported scandals out of Washington, DC, or the most important news of the day. And right now, each donation will be doubled thanks to a $50,000 match. So when you make a donation, it’ll go twice as far.

Your support keeps us going. If you’re able, donate today.

Thanks for reading.

—Monika Bauerlein, CEO

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