August 6, 2020

The Trump Files: Cosmo Once Asked Donald to Pose Nude for $50,000

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This post was originally published as part of “The Trump Files“—a collection of telling episodes, strange but true stories, and curious scenes from the life of our current president—on October 14, 2016.

It turns out Melania almost wasn’t the only Trump to strip down for a magazine.

In 1989, according to the Miami Herald, Cosmopolitan asked Donald to pose nude in “a feature lay-out [a] la Burt Reynolds” for its 25th anniversary issue. The Herald also reported that Trump was (inexplicably) “the readers’ choice as the sexy man they would most like to see featured in the nude.” To entice Trump, Cosmo promised to protect his modesty with “a stack of books, a potted plant, a towel or something,” and the magazine was even willing to throw in a $50,000 donation to the charity of his choice.

Alas, Trump said no (as, reportedly, did Dennis Quaid, Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, and others). The seemingly not-that-coveted-slot eventually went to David Hasselhoff.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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