March 1, 2018

Trump Declares War on California, Baffling Even the White House

I’ve been trying with notably mixed success to avoid writing about Donald Trump’s daily ragetweets, which is why I didn’t write about this one yesterday:

This makes no sense that I’m aware of. Today, the LA Times informs me that I haven’t lost my marbles. Nobody else knows what it means either:

His threat confused just about everyone involved in the fight over border protection. If the goal was to gain leverage in his fight for the wall, the warning shot seemed oddly aimed: California officials have fought vigorously against Trump’s project, his top priority as a presidential candidate, even going to court to try to block it….Administration officials could not point to any change in policy — either proposals or executive actions — to accompany Trump’s tweet. Nor were officials sure what “sections of the wall” Trump was referring to as elements that “California wants.”

….Elected officials also didn’t offer much of a hint that Trump’s words had moved them. Even the current border upgrades are “not a priority in our view,” said Drew Hammill, a spokesman for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco). Rep. Scott Peters (D-San Diego) said a full wall on the border isn’t needed. “If he wants to waste that money in some other part of the country, that’s fine with me,” he added.

I suppose if I looked into it, it would turn out that Fox & Friends had a segment that sent Trump into a froth yesterday morning and this tweet was the result. It’s just another warning to me and everyone else that we should ignore everything he says on Twitter.

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate