July 26, 2017

Sarah Huckabee Sanders Reads Letter from Nine-Year-Old Praising the President

When asked about Trump’s ban on transgender military service, she threatened to end the briefing.

President Donald Trump may be busy hurling threats at lawmakers in his own party, unsettling the Boy Scouts, and publicly undermining the attorney general, but the White House would like the record to show that the president has made at least one new friend this week: nine-year-old Dylan.

In a rare on-camera appearance Wednesday, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders opened the briefing by reading a letter supposedly written by Trump’s adoring fan.

“You’re my favorite president,” the letter read. “I like you so much that I had a birthday about you. My cake was the shape of your hat.”

Sanders continued by answering a few questions from Dylan, including “How much money do you have?” Instead of using this as an opportunity to finally provide Trump’s tax returns, Sanders assured Dylan the president had “a lot” of money.

“I don’t know why people don’t like you,” the letter continued. “You seem really nice. Can we be friends?” Sanders assured Dylan that the president would indeed be his friend.

She concluded Wednesday by threatening to end the briefing if reporters continued to ask her about Trump’s announcement banning transgender people from military service. 

Update: Sanders provided proof of Dylan’s existence:

WE CAME UP SHORT.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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