June 22, 2020

Trump Refuses to Say Whether He Ordered to Slow Down Coronavirus Testing

Undermining aides once again, the president doesn’t deny what he told thousands he did.

President Donald Trump sent his aides scrambling this weekend after his trip to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he revealed during his first campaign rally since the lockdown that he had recently ordered health officials to “slow down” coronavirus testing. 

Trump’s logic for scaling back a crucial tool for fighting the pandemic was that testing—rather than relaxed social distancing measures as health officials have warned—was to blame for the steady rise in new coronavirus cases. The remarks sparked alarm, and the White House went into overdrive to deny their seriousness.

There are plenty of reasons to doubt the White House’s “tongue in cheek” defense but now, we have one more. Be sure to make it across to the 45-second mark to see a man barely containing his burning desire to blurt out the truth.

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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.

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