July 26, 2017

Sarah Huckabee Sanders Reads Letter from Nine-Year-Old Praising the President

When asked about Trump’s ban on transgender military service, she threatened to end the briefing.

President Donald Trump may be busy hurling threats at lawmakers in his own party, unsettling the Boy Scouts, and publicly undermining the attorney general, but the White House would like the record to show that the president has made at least one new friend this week: nine-year-old Dylan.

In a rare on-camera appearance Wednesday, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders opened the briefing by reading a letter supposedly written by Trump’s adoring fan.

“You’re my favorite president,” the letter read. “I like you so much that I had a birthday about you. My cake was the shape of your hat.”

Sanders continued by answering a few questions from Dylan, including “How much money do you have?” Instead of using this as an opportunity to finally provide Trump’s tax returns, Sanders assured Dylan the president had “a lot” of money.

“I don’t know why people don’t like you,” the letter continued. “You seem really nice. Can we be friends?” Sanders assured Dylan that the president would indeed be his friend.

She concluded Wednesday by threatening to end the briefing if reporters continued to ask her about Trump’s announcement banning transgender people from military service. 

Update: Sanders provided proof of Dylan’s existence:

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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.

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