December 14, 2019

Ivanka Trump Never Ever Gets Special Treatment. Nope, Never.

The president’s daughter, who is also a senior advisor, was interviewed by a Trump administration spokesperson in Qatar.

Chris Kleponis/CNP, Zuma

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Ivanka Trump is in the Middle East, for some reason, at the diplomatic Doha Forum in Qatar. BuzzFeed’s editor-in-chief Ben Smith caught something unusual about her interview.

Usually it’s a forum where leaders answer tough questions from journalists. BuzzFeed reported that the Turkish foreign minister faced questions about war crime allegations, the Rwandan president was asked about term limits, and South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham had to discuss the potential impeachment of President Donald Trump. 

But when it was Ivanka Trump’s turn, she took questions from Morgan Ortagus, a State Department spokesperson and former Fox News contributor.

BuzzFeed collected some of the most hard-hitting questions that were put to the president’s senior advisor and daughter:

“Can you tell us more about the trip [to Morocco] and the highlights?”

“You were able to put women’s prosperity into the national security strategy. That was so important to me that you did that and I’d love for you to explain that.”

“You also returned on a swing through Latin America with our Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan. Can you tell us about some of your impressions?”

“What can everyone here that’s representing the private sector do?”

 

 

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WE'LL BE BLUNT.

We have a considerable $390,000 gap in our online fundraising budget that we have to close by June 30. There is no wiggle room, we've already cut everything we can, and we urgently need more readers to pitch in—especially from this specific blurb you're reading right now.

We'll also be quite transparent and level-headed with you about this.

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.

And it's what MoJo and our community of readers have been doing for 47 years now.

But staying afloat is harder than ever.

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.

You're here for reporting like that, not fundraising, but one cannot exist without the other, and it's vitally important that we hit our intimidating $390,000 number in online donations by June 30.

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