August 16, 2017

Trump Shuts Down Manufacturing Council Before More CEOs Abandon Him

You can’t quit something that doesn’t exist.

President Donald Trump speaking at Trump Tower on Tuesday.Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

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Donald Trump’s connections to the business community are disappearing after the president failed to clearly denounce white supremacists following the protests in Charlottesville. A string of CEOs have disavowed associations with the president this week, forcing Trump to disband several groups of business advisers to the White House. 

On Tuesday, Trump tweeted that for every CEO leaving his Manufacturing Council he had plenty to take their place. A day later, he changed his mind. On Wednesday, Trump announced on Twitter that he was ending both the Manufacturing Council and his Strategic and Policy Forum.

Trump’s decision to eliminate the Manufacturing Council comes after eight CEOs and labor leaders quit in the wake of Trump’s half-hearted condemnation of white supremacist protests in Charlottesville. Twitter users were quick to compare the cancellation to a preemptive breakup.

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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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