It’s Gonna Be Clinton vs. Trump

Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily.


Well, it looks like it’s going to be Clinton vs. Trump this fall.

Donald Trump is delivering his victory speech right now, and I see that he’s officially started his great presidential pivot. He’s mostly saying the same things as always, but saying them with noticeably less bombast than usual. (It’s true that he started to relapse into bluster a bit toward the end, but he’s got plenty of time to learn. Give him a few weeks and he’ll seem almost like a normal person.) And that stage! He’s got the whole American flag thing going, along with a setup designed to look like it’s straight out of the White House briefing room. He’s even taking questions like an ordinary politician.

And just to make it all perfect, he’s got his own personal flunky now. Chris Christie, having sold his soul four days ago, was required to stand dutifully behind Trump the entire time. It looked excruciating. But that’s life in Trumpland. If Christie didn’t know this before, he does now.

In any case, this is the stage of the race in which Trump starts to calm down a bit so that all the Republicans who loathe him can start telling themselves that maybe he’s not so bad after all. With any luck, by August they’ll have completely forgotten that they once thought he was a crypto-fascist demagogue and racist. You’ll know this transformation is happening when people start commenting that he’s “really grown” since those tumultuous early days of the primaries. Stay tuned.

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate