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.)

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Owned by no one—except you.

We just keep seeing it happen: Newsrooms owned by billionaires and corporations are spinning their own narratives, overwriting the truth, following only stories that keep them in the pocket of those with even more power.

Not here. We’re not owned by anyone. We’re not part of any cult that demands our allegiance to a bottom line. We’ve spoken up and spoken out while other newsrooms changed their stories—or cut them altogether—to keep the C suite happy.

Our mission is to find the truth and amplify it. That’s why we’re independent, nonprofit, and, crucially, funded by readers. The investigations on our website will always be free to read, watch, and listen to, but our newsroom is powered by readers who pitch in what they can so we can keep asking the hard questions.

Can you chip in today?

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