July 11, 2018

Trump Throws His Usual Tantrum at NATO Summit

Pool Christophe Licoppe/Belga via ZUMA

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Blah blah blah:

Naturally we get all the usual stuff, barely updated from 2015 when Trump was using it on the campaign trail:

President Trump unleashed a blistering attack Wednesday on Germany and other NATO allies… Washington bears an unfair burden… “Germany…getting so much of its energy from Russia”… complained bitterly about Europe’s lagging defense spending… Even Stoltenberg…appeared reduced to spluttering… aides on both the U.S. and NATO side of a long table shifted in their seats and sat stonefaced… Munich’s Süddeutsche Zeitung headlined its story: “It is not only bad, it is catastrophic.”

Trump wants to be the center of attention and he wants to destroy anything that Barack Obama built. Obama worked hard on the NATO alliance and built a strong relationship with Angela Merkel, so Trump is tearing down NATO and howling about Merkel. There’s nothing more to this, and no one should bother pretending otherwise. Just let him howl and then settle down to business. If Trump theatrically decides not to sign the usual communique at the end of the summit, let him. But whatever anyone does, don’t give him the panic that he wants. Just stare at the ceiling while he rants and then deal with Pompeo and Mattis when it’s all over.

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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.

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