What *Did* Donald Trump Mean by “No PP”?

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


As you’ll recall, after forgetting what “TPP” meant in a speech last night, Donald Trump smirked and made a little joke to his audience: What you mean is, “No PP.” Or, perhaps, “no pee pee.” But what did he mean? Readers have offered three suggestions:

  1. It’s some kind of reference to the trans bathroom controversy.
  2. It’s some kind of cryptic reference to his penis size and capabilities.
  3. It’s an obnoxious and juvenile reference to a conservative joke that Hillary Clinton is incontinent.

#1 seems unlikely to me. I just don’t see it. #2 is not out of the question. We certainly know that Donald is puerile enough to think this would be funny. But it seems a little too obscure for the situation. That leaves #3, which is a cretinous “joke” that refers to a photoshopped picture circulated on Facebook by the fever swamp right a few weeks ago. It’s quite possible that Donald recently saw it and thought it was so hilarious he just had to share. After all, we already know that Trump finds the mere thought of Hillary Clinton taking a bathroom break during a debate “disgusting.”

Anyway, that’s that. It’s my best guess until someone asks him about this.

POSTSCRIPT: Another possibility: it was short for “No Planned Parenthood.” That doesn’t seem likely to me, but really, with Donald who the hell knows?

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate