April 3, 2018

Trump Threatens Foreign Aid to Honduras in Latest Anti-Immigrant Tweets

The president also debuted a new disparaging nickname for Obama.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday continued to fume over the “caravans” of migrants making their way north from Central America, this time threatening foreign aid to Honduras if the flow of migrants attempting to flee the country is not stopped.

The tweet is the latest in a string of anti-immigrant tweets first launched on Sunday that reference the roughly 1,000 Central American migrants heading north—some to seek asylum in the US or Mexico—and call international attention to the dangers of their journey. As the New York Times reports, the march is a relatively regular occurrence that picks up around Easter Sunday. 

But this year, with the help of Fox News, Trump has turned the event into a flashpoint for the immigration debate.

Not lost in the Tuesday tirade was Trump’s ongoing attacks on the “fakers” in the media. He also defended the pro-Trump local news giant, Sinclair Broadcasting, against mounting criticism over a video that shows its local news anchors across the nation reading from the same corporate-mandated “fake news”-bashing script. He ended the morning tweets—for now—by debuting a new disparaging nickname for former President Barack Obama to tout a favorable poll. Many on social media questioned Trump’s judgment in using “cheatin” to describe his predecessor amid two highly public lawsuits from women who allege they had affairs with the president.

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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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