September 24, 2020

The Trump Files: In 2012, Trump Begged GOP Presidential Candidates to Be Civil

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This post was originally published as part of “The Trump Files“—a collection of telling episodes, strange but true stories, and curious scenes from the life of our current president—on July 1, 2016.

There was once a time when Donald Trump wanted presidential candidates to be nice to one another.

“The Republican candidates are getting very, very nasty with one another,” said Trump in January 2012, during one of his From the Desk of Donald Trump YouTube videos. “It’s gotta stop.”

This was four years before Trump called Ted Cruz “a true lowlife” and bashed “Little Marco” Rubio as a “lightweight choker.” In the current campaign, he repeatedly derided Jeb Bush for his “low energy” and referred to Bush as “a total embarrassment to both himself and his family.” And he insulted Carly Fiorina and Rand Paul for their appearance.

But in 2012, Trump advocated a different approach, urging the GOP candidates not to get into the gutter. “They’re playing right into Obama’s hands,” he said. “We don’t want him [Obama] to use all of this stuff to win the election.”

The billionaire in this video message issued a plea for decency: “The fact is, the things that are being said are bad and they’re wrong. They’ve got to at least get along a little bit. Keep it civil.”

How times change.

 

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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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