Donald Trump Just Tried to Take Credit for Electing the Most Women to Congress Ever

The Democratic women wouldn’t give it to him.

Women members of Congress cheer after President Donald Trump acknowledges more women in Congress during his 2019 State of the Union address.J. Scott Applewhite/AP

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During Donald Trump’s State of the Union address on Tuesday night, the president took credit for a strong economy and noted that women had particularly benefited from job creation. The Democratic women of the 116th Congress—most of whom donned white in recognition of the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote—used the applause line to steal the president’s spotlight and call attention to the fact that there were more women in Congress than ever before.

“You weren’t supposed to do that!” the president shouted, departing from the script.

The formal remarks did include an acknowledgment of the fact that there are more women serving in Congress than ever before—”Don’t sit yet, you’re going to like this,” Trump said. And as he did, Democrats broke out in a “USA” chant.

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In "News Never Pays," our fearless CEO, Monika Bauerlein, connects the dots on several concerning media trends that, taken together, expose the fallacy behind the tragic state of journalism right now: That the marketplace will take care of providing the free and independent press citizens in a democracy need, and the Next New Thing to invest millions in will fix the problem. Bottom line: Journalism that serves the people needs the support of the people. That's the Next New Thing.

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In "This Is Not a Crisis. It's The New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, why this moment is particularly urgent, and how we can best communicate that without screaming OMG PLEASE HELP over and over. We also touch on our history and how our nonprofit model makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there: Letting us go deep, focus on underreported beats, and bring unique perspectives to the day's news.

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