July 31, 2017

Donald Trump Is Constitutionally Incapable of Telling the Truth

A few weeks ago, the press got wind of the fact that Donald Trump Jr. had met with a Russian attorney early in the 2016 campaign. The Trump brain trust got together to discuss how to respond:

The strategy, the advisers agreed, should be for Donald Trump Jr. to release a statement to get ahead of the story. They wanted to be truthful, so their account couldn’t be repudiated later if the full details emerged.

But within hours, at the president’s direction, the plan changed.

That’s from Ashley Parker, Carol Leonnig, Philip Rucker, and Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post. It might be the greatest lead I’ve read all year. Congratulations to whoever came up with it.

So who was the source for this story? Spicer? Priebus? Someone else? Poor old Donald hasn’t yet figured out that when you treat people badly, they’re likely to treat you badly in return. And government employees sign standard contracts, not the Trump specials that threaten to ruin their lives if they ever say anything bad about him. He might want to think about that.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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