Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Donald J. Trump, the twice-impeached former president who fomented an unprecedented attack on the US Capitol and has been at the center of a seemingly never-ending flood of lawsuits, investigations, and allegations (which he’s denied) of sexual misconductā€”including rapeā€”has officially announced his bid to recapture the presidency.

Speaking from his Mar-a-Lago residence, the Palm Beach club where reams of top secret, classified documents were allegedly uncovered by the FBI, Trump entered to “God Bless the USA” as the crowd held up their phones.

“America’s comeback starts right now,” Trump said.

The announcement has been something of a foregone conclusion. Whole swaths of Republican voters still treat Trump as their de facto leader, including powerful GOP lawmakers who have embraced his election lies. Reports indicate Trump has radical plans, including a potential evisceration of the federal bureaucracy if he were to win again.

After months of teasing and tortured predictions over when Trump would finally release the American public from this unique purgatory, the defeated president’s announcement couldn’t have landed at a more precarious moment for him. A murderer’s row of extremist candidates that he endorsed just lost their elections, often, catastrophically. Some of the losers: Mehmet Oz, Blake Masters, Joe Kent, Kari LakeJim Marchant, and Tudor Dixon.

This did not stop the former president from bragging that the Republicans won back the House of Representatives. “Nancy Pelosi has been fired,” he gloated. Still, the humiliating string of defeats, which prompted reports of vintage meltdowns and the return of “I am a Stable Genius,” has many in the GOP openly questioning whether Trump is still their guy.

Of course, it remains to be seen how long those equivocations will last; Trump has proven terrifyingly capable of escaping endless scandal. But while Trump flails playing defense, and an ascendant Ron DeSantis enjoys the glow from Florida’s newly cemented red-state status, I feel compelled to remind you of all the abhorrent racism, endless absurdity, unspeakable cruelty, and lies that we may once again be subjected to.

The glorification of violence

The near destruction of asylum policies in the United States.

Three right-wing Supreme Court justices.

The end of Roe.

The rolling back of more than 100 environmental rules.

The anti-immigrant, xenophobic, and hateful policies of family separation.

The wave of new private prisons that cropped up in the wake of his immigration crackdowns.

The sexism.

The constant corruption.

The kowtowing to Vladimir Putin.

The quid quo pro.

The kowtowing to the gun lobby.

The incitement of terrorism.

The mimicking and open embrace of authoritarian figures.

The relentless lying for the absolute dumbest bullshit.

The deadly failures and denialism as Covid ravaged the country.

The pernicious, baseless, conspiracy theories that eventually gave us something called QMaga.

The racist attacks on four congresswomen of color.

The humiliation on the world stage.

The blinding obsession with revenge.

The disastrous tax cuts.

The efforts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act.

The elevation of Roger Stone, the “ratfucker.”

The utter disregard for tribal sovereignty.

The late-career rise and constantā€”neverendingā€”fall of Rudy Giuliani.

The attacks on the media.

The attacks on Black journalists, specifically.

The disrespect for military service members who were wounded or died in combat, including John McCain and the Khans.

The relentless boosting of weapon sales to Saudi Arabia.

The threats to go after protesters with “ominous weapons” and “vicious dogs.”  

The outrageous ambassadors.

The parting gift to Washington: shitposters.

The fascism.

The campaign to steal a presidential election.

WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We canā€™t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who wonā€™t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its futureā€”you.

And we need readers to show up for us big timeā€”again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We canā€™t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who wonā€™t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its futureā€”you.

And we need readers to show up for us big timeā€”again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate