September 19, 2018

Trump Visited Rain-Drenched North Carolina and It Went About as Well as You’d Expect

“At least you got a nice boat out of the deal.”

Trump stands in front of a home that suffered damage from Hurricane Florence; in the background is a yacht that washed ashore.Evan Vucci/AP

After Hurricane Florence dumped 34 inches of rain on the Carolinas, swelling rivers and flooding neighborhoods and towns, President Donald Trump toured the particularly hard-hit areas in North Carolina. As of Wednesday, 37 people had been killed by the storm. The president, who is still being criticized for pelting survivors with paper towels after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico last September, has once again attracted criticism for the way he spoke with survivors of Hurricane Florence on Wednesday.

According to White House pool reports, while Trump was being briefed before his tour began, he asked an official about Lake Norman, a town near Charlotte. When the official told him it was doing just fine, Trump responded with, “I can’t tell you why, but I love that area.” One likely reason for his affection might be that there is a Trump National Golf Club located there.

Later on, while in New Bern, Trump encountered a man whose house was damaged by the storm, and whose insurance company, he said, had refused to pay for the damages. Trump was more distracted by the yacht that had washed ashore during the storm. Then, this happened:

https://twitter.com/JoePerticone/status/1042458427912597509

According to reports, when the president found out the man was not the owner, Trump smiled and said, “At least you got a nice boat out of the deal.” 

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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.

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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.

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