October 4, 2017

Quote of the Day: Wall Street Can “Wave Goodbye” to Puerto Rico Debts

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From President Trump, in an interview with Geraldo Rivera that aired last night on Hannity:

They owe a lot of money to your friends on Wall Street and we’re going to have to wipe that out. You’re going to say goodbye to that, I don’t know if it’s Goldman Sachs but whoever it is you can wave goodbye to that.

I love the reference to “your friends” on Wall Street, as if Trump himself is a Bernie-crat who loathes high finance. In reality, of course, he tried to hire Anthony Scaramucci and succeeded in hiring Steve Mnuchin, Wilbur Ross, Gary Cohn, and Dina Powell. Despite that, Wall Street tycoons are “your friends,” not his.

We’ll see. Trump could prove his alleged populist bona fides by truly pushing to wipe out Puerto Rico’s debt. But I wouldn’t bet the ranch on that. I’m sure we’ll soon have a “clarification” from the White House that Trump was just joking, or referring to ongoing restructuring negotiations, or only talking about debt owed to China. Or something.

Fascinating tidbit: Rivera himself clearly understands that Trump is wading into dangerous territory and cuts him off before he can cause himself more trouble. What a friend!

If you’re up for it, you can hear Trump talk about Puerto Rico’s debt starting around 3:20 in the interview below. Trigger warning: the interview starts with Trump droning on yet again about what a fabulous job he’s done in Puerto Rico and how he’s not getting enough credit for it.

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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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