September 5, 2018

Donald Trump Has No Idea His Staff Is Sabotaging Him

SMG via ZUMA

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For the past couple of hours the chattering classes have been obsessed with an anonymous op-ed published in the New York Times this afternoon. And why not? It is a wee bit strange for an op-ed to be anonymous. In this case, it’s written by a “senior official” in the Trump administration¹ who wants us to understand that there are plenty of adults who are monitoring the president and making sure he doesn’t destroy the world. That’s good to know, isn’t it? At the same time, check this out:

The root of the problem is the president’s amorality. Anyone who works with him knows he is not moored to any discernible first principles that guide his decision making. Although he was elected as a Republican, the president shows little affinity for ideals long espoused by conservatives: free minds, free markets and free people. At best, he has invoked these ideals in scripted settings. At worst, he has attacked them outright. In addition to his mass-marketing of the notion that the press is the “enemy of the people,” President Trump’s impulses are generally anti-trade and anti-democratic.

It’s one thing to keep Trump from breaking up NATO on a whim or rerouting the Colorado River through San Diego so Mexico doesn’t get any of its water. But the fact that he’s not always as conservative as his aides would like him to be? Or that he’s anti-trade? Those are things that a president is allowed to be, whether we like it or not. When it comes to routine policy preferences, presidential aides are not supposed to be working against the president on the pretext that they’re saving the country.

On the other hand, if Trump is too stupid to figure out that this is happening, then I guess I don’t care. Let ’em brawl. Considering the astonishing level of amorality and cowardice that the Republican Party has shown in the era of Trump, I couldn’t care less what happens to them. With any luck, the entire party will disintegrate like the Whigs and be replaced by a new party with a modest veneer of principle and at least a pretense of regard for the non-white and non-rich. It can’t happen soon enough.

¹Not necessarily in the White House, though. Keep this in mind.

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“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.

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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.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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