June 9, 2018

This Photo Tells You Everything You Need to Know About Trump’s Presence at the G7 Summit

“This looks like an intervention.”

On Saturday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s official Instagram account posted a picture from what her office described simply as a “spontaneous meeting between two working sessions” from the Group of 7 nations summit in Quebec City this weekend where President Donald Trump: railed against “ridiculous and unacceptable” trade tariffs on American goods; threatened to quit all trade with his G7 counterparts while also proposing the complete elimination of tariffs on all goods and services; blamed former President Obama for Russia’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine; and made a curious prediction involving his “touch” and his “feel” for his upcoming meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.

The image of Trump—surrounded by British Prime Minister Theresa May, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe—sparked a lively discussion on social media when Buzzfeed News’ David Mack posted it to Twitter, writing, “tells you a lot about how things went.”

“This looks like an intervention,” wrote one Twitter user.

“This isn’t WWII, they’re allies…does he not remember that?” wrote another.

Another commenter said, “We are all Angela Merkel.”

Vicente Fox, the former president of Mexico, later posted the image to Twitter, chiding the president, “@realDonaldTrump, you’re such an spoiled brat, creating imaginary enemies all over the world. This lady and gentlemen are the true leaders of the fre[e] and modern world, you’ve made sure the U.S. lost its position.”

The president arrived to the G7 summit late and left 24 hours early, missing discussions with global leaders on climate change and gender equality.

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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.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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