June 10, 2020

Donald Trump Has Always Said Racist Things

“I would love to be a well-educated Black.”

Donald Trump in 1989Giovanni/Ipol1hotos/Zuma

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Following weeks of protests against racial injustice in the United States, President Donald Trump is reportedly planning on delivering a speech on race relations. Reportedly, it will be written by his senior aide Stephen Miller, who was responsible for turning the president’s hardline attitudes towards immigration into policy that involves separating families and placing children in cages at the nation’s southern border.

It is impossible to predict what this speech will contain, but given his past performance in referring to protesters as “THUGS“, it is unlikely that Trump will offer healing comments in an attempt to bridge divisions in the nation. In case you needed further proof that the president has always been a racist, Mother Jones dug up some of his comments from 1989. “A well-educated Black has a tremendous advantage over a well-educated white in terms of the job market,” Trump told NBC at the time. “If I were starting off today I would love to be a well-educated Black because I really believe they do have an actual advantage today.”

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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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