March 23, 2017

How Many Lies Can Donald Trump Defend in One Interview?

“I can’t be doing so badly, because I’m president, and you’re not.”

Jonathan Ernst/Reuters/ZUMA

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As President Donald Trump continues to attack the press and cling to baseless wiretapping accusations, a new poll released this week reveals the American public may not accept the president’s version of the truth, with 60 percent of those polled describing Trump as dishonest.

Despite the eroding support, the president appears unfazed, even emboldened, by his critics. When asked by Time about his previous theories, including the unfounded claim that 3 million people voted illegally in the 2016 election, Trump repeatedly refused to relent. “Well I think I will be proved right about that too,” he said in an interview published Thursday.

As for the wiretapping allegations, Trump argued that his widely criticized tweet storm accusing Barack Obama of ordering a wiretap of Trump Tower was acceptable because he used quotations in his social-media posts.

“Because a wiretapping is, you know, today it is different than wiretapping,” he explained. “It is just a good description. But wiretapping was in quotes. What I’m talking about is surveillance.”

But Trump’s most alarming observation occurs at the conclusion of the interview, after he blasts any numbers that contradict his personal statistics (“My statistics are even better.”) In the end, he insists his version of events is the real truth because, after all, he’s sitting in the Oval Office.

Trump tells Time, “Hey look, in the meantime, I guess, I can’t be doing so badly, because I’m president, and you’re not. You know. Say hello to everybody, OK?”

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“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.

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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.

payment methods

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