January 23, 2017

Donald Trump’s Press Secretary Sends Even Crazier Tweets Than Donald Trump

Meet “alternative facts” Sean Spicer. He hates Dippin’ Dots and regularly swallows cinammon-flavored gum.


Over the weekend, the American people were introduced to President Donald Trump’s new press secretary, Sean Spicer, who dedicated his first press conference on Saturday to angrily accuse members of the media of purposely misleading the public about the size of Friday’s inauguration crowd.

According to Spicer, Trump drew the “largest audience ever to witness an inauguration, period,” a patently false claim that Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway later defended as “alternative facts.” Both statements added a fresh new layer of humiliation to Trump’s first few days in office.

While the country has been well acquainted with Conway’s expert spin skills by now, most Americans are still wondering who just delivered one of the strangest White House pressers in recent memory. For the uninitiated, here’s what a brief look at Spicer’s social-media utterances reveal:

He has engaged in a yearslong war with Dippin’ Dots:

Like his boss, he makes a habit of airing consumer grievances on Twitter:

He hates Daft Punk:

Also making the rounds since Saturday’s press conference is a Washington Post piece from August that revealed the gross fact that Spicer regularly chews and swallows 35 pieces of Orbit cinnamon-flavored gum—all before noon.

It’s a lot to take in. But take comfort in knowing we all still have four long years to get acquainted.

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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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