Trump Says Citizenship Question Needed for “Many Reasons,” None of Which He Can Explain

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Here is the head of the executive branch of government explaining why we need a citizenship question on the census:

I guess I don’t need to point out that we don’t need a citizenship question for any of these reasons. Trump’s problem—and the Justice Department’s—is that it’s hard to think of any reason you need a citizenship question on the census.

Except for the real one, of course, which is that it’s a transparent attempt to reduce the count of undocumented workers, which would mostly reduce the population of blue states relative to red states and cost them a few seats in Congress. Sadly for Trump, although the Supreme Court is fine with a nakedly partisan motivation like this, it’s not OK with deliberately sabotaging the census. Too bad.

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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