June 19, 2017

John Oliver Tears Into Donald Trump’s Vow to Bring Back Coal Jobs

”Trump needs to stop lying to coal miners. We all do.”

John Oliver dedicated the latest installment of Last Week Tonight on Sunday to tackling one of President Donald Trump’s most egregious lies: the vow to revive the coal mining industry. 

“We’ll start winning, wining, and winning, and you are going to be very proud,” Trump said at one campaign rally in West Virginia. “And for those miners: get ready, because you are going to be working your asses off.”

But as most experts point out, a slew of factors such as increased automation and the rise of renewable energy stand in Trump’s way. Yet, his administration continues to cite bogus coal statistics to defend dangerous policy decisions, including abandoning the Paris climate treaty and rolling back the Obama EPA’s Clean Power Plan, all while cozying up to powerful mining CEO’s like Don Blankenship.

“The point here is: Trump needs to stop lying to coal miners,” Oliver said. “We all do.”

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In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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