October 11, 2016

Donald Trump Takes to Twitter to Stoke a GOP Civil War

“The shackles have been taken off me.”

Evan Vucci/AP, File

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


You probably couldn’t tell from the way Donald Trump bulldozes through political norms like a child stomping on a sand castle, but apparently the Republican nominee has not been free to be himself. Until now.

On Tuesday, Trump proclaimed himself free of “shackles” that had been holding him back and proceeded to lash out at House Speaker Paul Ryan and the Republican establishmentarians who have been distancing themselves from his campaign.

On Monday, Ryan had held a conference call with his caucus and told him he would no longer defend Trump after a 2005 video of the GOP nominee bragging about groping women was released last week. (Ryan, however, has not rescinded his endorsement of Trump.) Meanwhile, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus on Monday declared that the party is still wholly behind Trump.

But Trump’s tweetstorm Tuesday is throwing cold water on the unity message the RNC is trying to convey by turning on Ryan and stoking intraparty unrest.

Fifteen minutes later, Trump tweeted again, attacking his party.

Thirty minutes later, he still wasn’t done.

If Trump loses in November, he seems bent on bringing the Republican Party crashing down with him.

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.

payment methods

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.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate