John Oliver Tears Into Donald Trump’s Vow to Bring Back Coal Jobs

”Trump needs to stop lying to coal miners. We all do.”

John Oliver dedicated the latest installment of Last Week Tonight on Sunday to tackling one of President Donald Trump’s most egregious lies: the vow to revive the coal mining industry. 

“We’ll start winning, wining, and winning, and you are going to be very proud,” Trump said at one campaign rally in West Virginia. “And for those miners: get ready, because you are going to be working your asses off.”

But as most experts point out, a slew of factors such as increased automation and the rise of renewable energy stand in Trump’s way. Yet, his administration continues to cite bogus coal statistics to defend dangerous policy decisions, including abandoning the Paris climate treaty and rolling back the Obama EPA’s Clean Power Plan, all while cozying up to powerful mining CEO’s like Don Blankenship.

“The point here is: Trump needs to stop lying to coal miners,” Oliver said. “We all do.”

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

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