November 12, 2018

What Is Donald Trump Doing Today?

Let me get this straight. On Saturday Donald Trump skipped a memorial service for Americans killed during World War I at Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in France. Today he’s not bothering to attend the Veterans Day wreath-laying at Arlington Cemetery even though he’s in Washington. And later this week he’ll be skipping both the ASEAN and APEC summits in Asia.

So what is he doing today? Stewing over his mammoth loss in the midterm elections? Trying to figure out a way to get partisan hack Matt Whitaker confirmed as attorney general? Trying to remember what’s actually in his income tax returns now that there’s a chance they might become public? Throwing temper tantrums over the possibility that Robert Mueller plans to indict Donald Trump Jr.? Watching CNN and shaking his fist a lot? Working up the nerve to fire Ryan Zinke? Thinking up new ways to insult the memory of Californians who died last week in the state’s worst wildfires in recent memory? Or maybe just nursing a cold?

Who knows? But whatever it is, it sure doesn’t look like anything presidential is on the horizon.

UPDATE: I misinterpreted the tweet above, thinking that it meant there was an official wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington Cemetery today and that Trump was skipping it. There isn’t. All it means is that Trump did nothing public either yesterday or today in memory of Veterans Day. Apologies.

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

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So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

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