March 13, 2018

Tillerson Leaves State Department, Thanks Everyone Except Donald Trump

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We’ve now heard from Rex Tillerson. In a wavering voice, he held a press briefing in which he thanked everyone for their contributions over the past year. He thanked State Department workers. He thanked Defense Secretary James Mattis. He literally thanked all 300 million Americans.

Except for Donald Trump. He didn’t thank Donald Trump.

Anyway, it’s tough to know how to react to the Tillerson firing. On the one hand, he was completely incompetent and presided over a gutting of the foreign service corps. On the other hand, he at least tried to rein in Trump’s worst instincts. Mike Pompeo sure isn’t going to do that. And now Pompeo will be replaced at the CIA by a career officer who was in charge of torturing prisoners during the Bush administration.

And while we’re on the subject, remember this from last October?

“I have never considered leaving this post,” Tillerson said from the State Department’s lavish Treaty Room….The statement followed a report by NBC News that Tillerson openly mocked the president, calling him a “moron” following a July 20 meeting at the Pentagon with top Trump officials.

….One US official expressed confidence in Tillerson’s status due to a so-called “suicide pact” forged between Defense Secretary James Mattis, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and Tillerson, whereby all three cabinet secretaries vow to leave in the event that the president makes moves against one of them.

First off, Tillerson called Trump a “fucking moron.”¹ Let’s keep that straight. Second, I guess the suicide pact is no longer operative. Mnuchin and Mattis still seem to be around.

Finally, in other news, Donald Trump’s personal aide John McEntee has also been fired. Why? According to CNN, it’s “because he is currently under investigation by the Department of Homeland Security for serious financial crimes.” He was immediately hired as a senior advisor for the Trump 2020 campaign. I guess they don’t care about serious financial crimes there. In fact, it’s probably a plus on your resume.

Oh, and as I mentioned earlier, the #4 guy at the State Department has also been fired. His crime was telling the truth that Tillerson had no idea why he had been fired.

This has been quite a day for firing people. Apparently H.R. McMaster is next, but perhaps Trump is planning to wait until next week.

¹Tillerson has never denied saying this, but he’s never admitted it either. Now that he’s been fired, I wonder if he’ll open up a bit about just how big a moron Trump is?

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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.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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