November 29, 2017

Can Donald Trump *Ever* Go Too Far?

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I’m sitting here trying to absorb my previous post. I just woke up, so give me a minute.

OK. Here’s what happened. It’s 6 am on the East Coast. Donald Trump is up and puttering around. He fires up Twitter and sees this from stale old rabble rouser Ann Coulter:

Intriguing! So he clicks and heads over to Jayda Fransen’s Twitter feed. It’s got a big picture of Donald Trump on top! He likes that. So he scrolls. Ooh, more videos of Muslims acting horrifically. Are they real? Well, they’re real enough if they come from the president of the United States! So he picks a few and retweets them. Then it’s back to his usual puerile boasting about the economy and rants against the fake news.

This is not normal, even for Trump. He’s not a subtle man, but he usually has the animal cunning to at least leave himself a veneer of deniability for his ethnic hatreds. This time, though, he goes full frontal. Why?

  1. It’s his way of helping Roy Moore.
  2. He wants people talking about this instead of the appalling tax bill Republicans are moving through Congress.
  3. He’s officially gone from occasionally delusional to full crazy uncle.
  4. Who the hell knows?

I know we’ve all said this a hundred times, but are Republicans ever going to seriously do something about this? I know they want to pass their tax bill and don’t want to get involved with stuff like this, but when is enough enough? Are any of them planning to say anything at all about this? Ever?

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.

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.

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