Mother Jones
You could learn most of what you needed to know about the tone and tenor of Donald Trump’s second inauguration by the people who showed up to watch it. It was a perfectly 2025 mixture of influencers, fighters, billionaires, and bootlickers. Conor McGregor, a UFC star who was recently found guilty of sexual assault by […]
Mother JonesUpon assuming the presidency Monday, Donald Trump is expected to immediately move to end the federal government’s recognition of transgender people, who have existed in hundreds of societies worldwide since ancient times. In an executive order titled, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” the full text of […]
Mother JonesOn Monday, moments before Donald Trump’s inauguration, President Joe Biden commuted the life sentence of American Indian Movement activist Leonard Peltier, who has been in prison for nearly 50 years, from two life sentences to home confinement. In a press release, Biden said: “This commutation will enable Mr. Peltier to spend his remaining days in home […]
Mother JonesThe weather in Washington, DC, has plunged into the 20s, with a 40 percent chance of snow showers—and a 100 percent chance of bumping into someone who voted for Donald Trump. Our DC bureau chief, David Corn, bundled up against the chill and braved the slushy queues to speak with ecstatic Trump supporters who began […]
Mother JonesThe American people have spoken. Donald Trump is the 47th president of the United States. At noon Monday, Trump himself spoke, swearing—not especially credibly—that he would “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution.” A lot of other Americans spoke to get us here, too. More than four years ago, at the very same Capitol where Trump […]
Mother JonesCecile Richards, former president of Planned Parenthood and a staunch advocate for reproductive rights, died on Monday, according to a statement from her family. Since 2023, she battled glioblastoma, a form of terminal brain cancer. She was 67 years old. “This morning our beloved Cecile passed away at home, surrounded by her family and her […]
Mother JonesThis story, first published in January 2022 by the Inside Climate News, is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Terms like “environmental racism” or “environmental justice” were not yet part of the national lexicon when the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated at the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis on April 4, 1968. And while […]
Mother JonesAs the finishing touches settle on Donald Trump’s inauguration ceremony, Washington is swarming with members of this great nation preparing to kneel and lick the boot. Men and women, but mostly men, who giddily abandon any morsel of shame to gain purchase with an administration that has already clarified its intentions to impose enormous cruelty […]
Mother JonesAs the finishing touches settle on Donald Trump’s inauguration ceremony, the nation’s capital is swarming with members of this great nation preparing to kneel and lick the boot. Men and women, but mostly men, who giddily abandon any morsel of shame to gain purchase with an administration that has already clarified its intentions to impose […]
Mother JonesThe harder Texas has worked to ban abortion, the more New Mexico has done to welcome patients fleeing the state—and vice versa. In the months after the Dobbs decision, as New Mexico became one of the most important reproductive health havens in the US, anti-abortion activists in Texas struck back by lobbying conservative communities in […]
Mother JonesDonald Trump had a lot working against his 2024 candidacy. During his first presidency, he was impeached twice—the second time for inciting the violent mob that stormed the US Capitol. In the years since, he was found liable for sexual abuse and faced charges in four criminal cases. He was found guilty on 34 felony […]
Mother JonesWith President-elect Donald Trump and his acolytes likely to enact an anti-abortion agenda across government, a pair of Democratic governors have announced new measures to bolster protections for reproductive freedom in their states. On Thursday, North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein (D) issued an executive order stipulating that state officials will not assist in civil or […]
Mother JonesThe below article first appeared in David Corn’s newsletter, Our Land. The newsletter comes out twice a week (most of the time) and provides behind-the-scenes stories and articles about politics, media, and culture. Subscribing costs just $5 a month—but you can sign up for a free 30-day trial. On Monday, the three wealthiest men in the world—Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and […]
Mother JonesDonald Trump’s return to power and a Republican-controlled Congress are set to mark a new era in US political history, one steeped in rule-breaking, authoritarian tendencies, and an overwhelming hostility to long-established civic institutions. And, according to the president-elect, a herculean portion of this agenda will kick into gear immediately after he is inaugurated, with […]
Mother JonesPresident-elect Donald Trump may be famously inconsistent on abortion rights, but his picks to run federal departments and agencies haven’t been. They have defended anti-abortion laws in court, spread disinformation about the procedure, and openly celebrated the Dobbs decision. Some nominees you’ve likely heard of because their troubling reputations preceded them; others are lesser-known. Abortion […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Even before President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House on Monday, California got ahead of things. Anticipating more of the federal meddling they’d seen in the past, like when Trump’s first administration tried to block the state’s vehicle emissions standards, lawmakers met […]
Mother JonesOn Friday night, just days before his inauguration, President-elect Donald Trump took to X to celebrate…the launch of his new meme coin. “It’s time to celebrate everything we stand for,” he wrote, “WINNING!” It’s a move that, at least on paper, seemed to inflate Trump’s personal wealth by billions ahead of ushering in the most […]
Mother JonesOn Monday, January 6, my grandmother celebrated her one-hundredth birthday. It was quite a milestone for a woman who during the Covid pandemic asked me, “What’s the big deal with getting vaccinated, we all did it in the ’30s to combat typhoid?” My family came over from across the United States—as close as Las Vegas […]
Mother JonesPresident Donald Trump ran his 2024 campaign on a promise to enact mass deportation, and to do so immediately. The Wall Street Journal reports that four people familiar with the plan say the incoming administration is preparing for a large-scale immigration raid to begin in Chicago on Tuesday, and last a week. The New York […]
Mother JonesIt’s been two decades since the Battle of Fallujah, the bloodiest battle of the global war on terror, during the Iraq War—a disaster we now know was based on a lie. At the time, however, in the aftermath of 9/11, the battlefield was filled with troops who believed they were serving and defending their country […]
Mother JonesOn January 8, after multiple wildfires erupted in Los Angeles, a father who was an amputee, and his son, who had cerebral palsy—both wheelchair users—died while waiting for assistance to leave their home. Two days later, on January 10, a woman described as bedridden also died from smoke inhalation and thermal injuries. They were three […]
Mother JonesWhen the longtime state representative serving her district in north-central New Mexico retired in early 2020, science educator Anita Gonzales wondered who would replace him. Then she asked herself, “Why not me?” Although she’d occasionally visited the state Capitol in Santa Fe to lobby for issues that mattered to STEM students and teachers, Gonzales didn’t […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. When Deb Haaland was chosen as the secretary of the Interior by President Joe Biden in 2021, she was the first Native American ever to serve in a US Cabinet. It was a seminal moment for tribal […]
Mother JonesOn Friday, the Senate voted to advance a bill that would significantly increase the number of undocumented immigrants subject to mandatory detention and give right-wing judges more power. Most notably, it has done so with help from Democrats who now fear being tagged as weak on immigration enforcement. The Laken Riley Act is named after […]
Mother JonesThis morning President Joe Biden announced that he is commuting the sentences of nearly 2,500 people serving longer prison terms for convictions related to crack cocaine. In doing so, Biden made history and set the record for the most total individual commutations by a president in history at over 4,000. “Today’s clemency action provides relief […]
Mother JonesThe Supreme Court on Friday allowed a ban on TikTok to take effect. Last year, President Joe Biden signed a law that would ban the platform unless its Chinese parent-company, ByteDance, sold it. In handing down its ruling, the court rebuffed an effort by the platform, some of its users, numerous free-speech advocates, and President-elect […]
Mother JonesIn the early days of the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, President Joe Biden took some time to congratulate himself on a job well done. For weeks, his administration had been pursuing a “bear hug” of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: heaping billions in aid on the US ally and insulating it from international […]
Mother JonesAt a Senate committee hearing on Wednesday, Donald Trump’s nominee to run the Environmental Protection Agency, Lee Zeldin, acknowledged climate change is “real” and that greenhouse gasses are making the planet hotter—but stopped short of saying the agency must regulate them. About 90 minutes into the hearing before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. As firefighters are battling multiple huge blazes tearing through Los Angeles, California’s prisons have deployed more than 1,000 incarcerated people to battle on the frontlines. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) said that, as of Wednesday morning, 1,116 […]
Mother JonesGovernment employees who report possible malfeasance are almost certain to be targeted by the second Trump administration. Mark Zaid is a lawyer likely to represent some of them; over the past two decades, he has provided legal counsel to a long list of federal employees and intelligence officers, including whistleblowers. His most high-profile whistleblower case, […]