May 11, 2018

Ask a Pundit: Why Does Scott Pruitt Still Have a Job?

Mother Jones; Andrew Harnik/AP

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Martin Longman asks a provocative question: Why is Scott Pruitt untouchable? Trump has fired loads of other people, but despite Pruitt’s almost comical accumulation of embarrassing scandals, he has somehow managed to hang on. What’s the deal with this? How does Pruitt do it? I’m here to help:

  • He has not called Donald Trump either a moron or an idiot.
  • He does not argue with Trump about policy.
  • He does not bore Trump with lengthy white papers.
  • He believes climate change is hogwash.
  • Liberals hate his guts.
  • The press is gunning for him.
  • He is nakedly avaricious and enjoys taking revenge on his enemies—two traits that Trump approves of.
  • Trump doesn’t really care about scandals per se, only about scandals that threaten to touch him in any way.
  • Pruitt’s scandals don’t touch Trump in any way.

Any other questions?

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We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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