October 4, 2020

Trump, Infected With COVID-19, Goes on a Surprise Drive-By to Greet Supporters Outside Walter Reed

Gripas Yuri/ZUMA

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Two days after entering Walter Reed Medical Center for COVID-19 treatment, President Trump on Sunday took a motorcade ride outside the hospital during which he waved at supporters from the back of an SUV. The surprise plan, which Trump announced in a Twitter video shortly before he departed Walter Reed, immediately invited questions about the safety of Secret Service agents, who were seen riding along with the coronavirus-infected president inside a black Suburban SUV with the windows rolled up.

In the same video that announced his car ride, Trump said that he had met with soldiers and first-responders during his hospital stay. “What a group,” he said before revealing that he intended to “pay a little surprise” to the “patriots” stationed outside. The shocking episode came amid overwhelming uncertainty over the president’s condition—hours earlier, Trump’s physician admitted to trying to conceal that the president had been on oxygen the day before in order to “reflect an upbeat attitude”—as well as intense criticism over the White House’s reckless dismissal of social-distancing measures and other key health recommendations aimed at curbing the spread of the virus.

“This administration doesn’t care about the Secret Service,” a current agent told the Wahington Post after Trump tested positive for COVID-19 last week. The same report detailed a staggeringly lackadaisical approach to protective measures within the White House, with Secret Service officials denied requests for more secure N95 masks. 

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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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