September 9, 2015

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

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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.)

THE BIG PICTURE

You expect the big picture, and it's our job at Mother Jones to give it to you. And right now, so many of the troubles we face are the making not of a virus, but of the quest for profit, political or economic (and not just from the man in the White House who could have offered leadership and comfort but instead gave us bleach).

In "News Is Just Like Waste Management," we unpack what the coronavirus crisis has meant for journalism, including Mother Jones’, and how we can rise to the challenge. If you're able to, this is a critical moment to support our nonprofit journalism with a donation: We've scoured our budget and made the cuts we can without impairing our mission, and we hope to raise $400,000 from our community of online readers to help keep our big reporting projects going because this extraordinary pandemic-plus-election year is no time to pull back.

THE BIG PICTURE

You expect the big picture, and it's our job at Mother Jones to give it to you. And right now, so many of the troubles we face are the making not of a virus, but of the quest for profit, political or economic (and not just from the man in the White House who could have offered leadership and comfort but instead gave us bleach).

In "News Is Just Like Waste Management," we unpack what the coronavirus crisis has meant for journalism, including Mother Jones’, and how we can rise to the challenge. If you're able to, this is a critical moment to support our nonprofit journalism with a donation: We've scoured our budget and made the cuts we can without impairing our mission, and we hope to raise $400,000 from our community of online readers to help keep our big reporting projects going because this extraordinary pandemic-plus-election year is no time to pull back.

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