August 28, 2018

Trump Urges Evangelicals to Prep for Violence After They Lose Election

"Hmmm. Should I re-lower the flag for McCain? Ivanka and Sarah want me to. But I already raised it. Might look weak. And I really hate that little prick. Then again, it would drive tons of cable coverage, and all coverage is good coverage, right? Fine. I'll lower it just as soon as—" What? Oh, right, Amen.Olivier Douliery/CNP via ZUMA

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Donald Trump lied to a bunch of evangelical leaders last night, but that’s no big deal. “Thou shalt not lie” isn’t actually one of the Ten Commandments, which is a good thing or else Trump would have self-immolated decades ago. However, he did make some progress in converting evangelicals into his very own private army of brownshirts:

At stake in the November midterms, Trump told the audience, are all the gains he has made for conservative Christians.

“The level of hatred, the level of anger is unbelievable,” he said. “Part of it is because of some of the things I’ve done for you and for me and for my family, but I’ve done them. … This Nov. 6 election is very much a referendum on not only me, it’s a referendum on your religion, it’s a referendum on free speech and the First Amendment.”

If the GOP loses, he said, “they will overturn everything that we’ve done and they’ll do it quickly and violently, and violently. There’s violence. When you look at Antifa and you look at some of these groups — these are violent people.”

First things first: telling his audience that the election is a referendum on “your religion” is refreshingly honest, since everyone knows that Trump himself has no particular religious beliefs other than “an eye for an eye—and then some.”

But the rest of it is—well, what is it? It’s not clear exactly what Democrats will overturn if they take power, but there are certainly a few things here and there they’d take a crack at. So that’s fair enough. But violently? If Republicans lose, Democrats are going to overturn free speech and the First Amendment and they’re going to do it “quickly and violently”? The only reason to say something like that is to prep your supporters to become violent themselves. Be ready to take to the streets if Democrats win! I guess that’s what Trump is girding his loins for.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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