Trump to CNN: Your Profits Are “Due 100% to ‘Donald J. Trump'”

<a href=http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/24037500/8577782f8467470ca847918fbbb2cdd8/5/0>Jon Buckle</a>/AP

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Media outlets can’t get enough of Donald Trump—and he knows it.

This morning, the leading GOP candidate tweeted a letter he sent to CNN president Jeff Zucker, claiming that CNN’s ad rates had increased by 4,000 percent due to his influence. Zucker, Trump urged, should consider the broadcast of the second GOP presidential debate on September 16, which CNN will host, a “public service” and donate the profits to veterans groups.

“I believe that all profits from this broadcast should go to various VETERANS groups, a list of which I will send to you in the near future,” Trump wrote. “The veterans of our country, our finest people, have been treated horribly by our government and its ‘all talk and no action’ politicians. In fact, some would say they are treated like third class citizens—even worse, in many cases than illegal immigrants.”

Trump’s avid support of veterans is a far cry from his suggestion earlier this summer that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), was not a war hero because he was captured in combat. Trump is now doubling down on his pro-veteran stance after likening his experience at New York Military Academy to formal military training. He foreshadowed the letter to Zucker in Time magazine’s cover story on him last month.

A CNN spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump’s full letter is below. (Click to enlarge.)

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

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 the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources 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.

payment methods

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

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 the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources 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.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate