June 15, 2018

Jealous of Kim, Trump Wants Americans to “Sit Up in Attention” When He Talks Too

The president later tried to walk it back as just a silly joke about dictatorship.

Vague pledges of denuclearization and a disturbing military salute aren’t the only eyebrow-raising results to have emerged from President Donald Trump’s summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un earlier this week.

The high-stakes meeting is apparently now serving as inspiration for Trump, who told Fox News’ Steve Doocy outside the White House Friday morning that he desires the same brand of dictatorial effect Kim has on repressed North Korean citizens. In detailing his envy, Trump described Americans as “my people”—a signal the president may already be attempting to emulate Kim, one of the world’s most notorious dictators.

“He’s the head of a country, and I mean he’s the strong head—don’t let anyone think anything different,” Trump said while floating the possibility that Kim could be invited to the White House soon. “He speaks and his people sit up at attention. I want my people to do the same.”

The statement echoes remarks Trump gave during an interview shortly after the summit concluded, where he commended the “great fervor” Kim strikes among North Koreans. He told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos: “His people, you see the fervor. They have a great fervor.”

Shortly after the Fox News interview aired, Trump tried to brush his statement off as joke. “You don’t understand sarcasm,” he told reporters. The attempt at humor, as the president claimed, would be hard to detect for a president with a disturbing record of praising the world’s dictators and strongmen.

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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.

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