Quote of the Day: Mr. Trump, Tear Down That Wall!

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From Mick Mulvaney, President Trump’s chief of staff:¹

We are desperate — desperate — for more people. We are running out of people to fuel the economic growth that we’ve had in our nation over the last four years. We need more immigrants.

Technically, this is true. GDP growth has two components: population growth and productivity growth. If population growth slows down, then all that’s left is productivity growth—and there’s little reason to think that Trump even knows what labor productivity is, let alone has any bright ideas about how to improve it.

In fairness, Mulvaney clarified that he thinks we need more legal immigrants, which means that my headline is the worst sort of clickbait. Still, even that’s not especially popular among Trump’s base. Perhaps we’ll get a “clarification” soon?

¹For now, anyway.

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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

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