Mother Jones
In the early 2010s, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. went through a contentious divorce with his second wife, Mary Richardson Kennedy. It was ugly. Richardson had found a diary RFK Jr. kept that chronicled multiple extramarital affairs he had engaged in—possibly numbering in the dozens—and she was enraged and tormented by his infidelity. She was drinking […]
Mother JonesOn Tuesday, President Donald Trump issued an executive order attempting to sharply curtail access to gender-affirming care for transgender youth, up to and including 18-year-olds. The executive order does not impose an immediate ban on gender-affirming care. Instead, it directs federal agencies to begin taking steps to end gender-affirming treatments for children. By defining “children” […]
Mother JonesIn a scathing letter to the Senate ahead of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s confirmation hearings to become Secretary of Health and Human Services, Biden administration ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy has described her cousin as a hypocritical “predator” who is unqualified for the job and “addicted to attention and power.” In a video her son, […]
Mother JonesOn day seven of Donald Trump’s new presidency, his administration issued an order of possibly unrivaled lawlessness via a two-page memo directing a broad pause in billions of spending authorized by Congress. The order conflicts with the most basic premise of American government, that each branch has its own role: Congress controls the purse, and […]
Mother JonesA late-night memo announcing a freeze on federal grants—and subsequent failures by the Trump White House to clarify the details of the funding pause—plunged the country into chaos on Tuesday, with reports of Medicaid portals getting abruptly shut down amid the widespread confusion. The blocked Medicaid access appeared to concern both healthcare providers and patients. […]
Mother JonesDonald Trump has signed an executive order targeting transgender members of the armed services. In 2017, President Trump banned transgender Americans from the military, though with an exception for those already serving. His new order, “Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness,” goes much further—it bans all transgender service members, stating that the “adoption of a gender […]
Mother JonesIn November 2020, President Donald Trump, citing national security risks, barred Americans from investing in firms designated as having ties to China’s military. Barely four years later, Trump’s 2025 inaugural committee accepted $250,000 from an American subsidiary of one of those companies. Syngenta—an agribusiness giant that produces seeds, pesticides, and other farming technology—donated to the […]
Mother JonesIn December, the Los Angeles County Public Health Department reported that five house cats had died after drinking raw milk. Four of their bodies subsequently tested positive for H5N1, the bird flu virus. But Cindy, a sleek gray tabby, is feeling fine, according to Mark McAfee, founder and CEO of Raw Farm, the farm where […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. From crusading against showers he feels don’t sufficiently wash his hair to reversing protections for a small fish he calls “worthless,” Donald Trump’s personal fixations have helped shape his first environmental priorities as president. While withdrawing the US from the Paris climate […]
Mother JonesA group founded by the billionaire Koch brothers is on a mission: to extend the massive tax cuts Trump instituted in his first term, and to convince working-class Americans that those cuts benefit them, too—despite ample evidence to the contrary. According to an eight-page memo obtained by the Guardian, Americans for Prosperity (AFP)—a dark-money group […]
Mother JonesIt seemed poetically fitting that my trip to Auschwitz would take me through Vienna, the starting point of my great-grandparents’ journey. Robert and Paula Stricker’s path was significantly more circuitous than mine: they were shuffled from Vienna to Dachau to Theresienstadt, and finally Auschwitz, where they were murdered along with approximately 1,100,000 other souls. My […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. World leaders, senior ministers and key figures in climate diplomacy have, one by one, reaffirmed their commitment to the Paris agreement this week, in response to the order by Donald Trump to withdraw the US from the pact. The prospect of […]
Mother JonesMcDonald’s superfan Donald Trump reclaimed the White House soon after vowing to “get toxic chemicals…out of our food supply” and “make America healthy again” (MAHA). How on earth did this junk-food junkie manage to woo voters concerned about the dangers of the American diet? The Democrats almost certainly played a part. For decades, their position […]
Mother JonesOn Sunday morning, President Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, claimed in an interview that aired on ABC that international leaders would not reject the Trump administration sending migrants back to their home countries. “Oh, they’ll take them back,” Homan told host Martha Raddatz after she asked about how the administration would handle countries that […]
Mother JonesBecause Elon Musk apparently did not create enough controversy for his liking this week, the tech billionaire also made a virtual appearance on Saturday at a rally for the extremist, right-wing, anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party ahead of the country’s snap elections next month. Musk told the crowd that he considers the party to be […]
Mother JonesThis article first appeared on The War Horse, an award-winning nonprofit news organization educating the public on military service. Subscribe to their newsletter. Twelve years ago, Army 1st Lt. Alivia Stehlik walked the parade route for President Obama’s second inauguration, making sure everything would go smoothly. Stehlik spent weeks planning for the Army’s role in […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Days before President Donald Trump returned to the Oval Office and took actions to stall the transition to clean energy, a disaster unfolded on the other side of the country that may have an outsize effect on the pace of […]
Mother JonesIn a sweeping move, President Donald Trump ousted at least a dozen inspectors general on Friday night, purging major federal agencies of independent watchdogs tasked with identifying fraud and abuse. A federal law enacted in 2022 stipulates that the president must give Congress at least 30 days notice before firing an inspector general, as well […]
Mother JonesPete Hegseth was sworn in as defense secretary on Saturday morning after a confirmation process mired in allegations of sexual assault, public drunkenness, and the financial mismanagement of two veterans’ advocacy groups. Vice President JD Vance cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate on Friday night after three Republicans—former GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell of […]
Mother JonesIn 2020, Blossom Old Bull was raising three teenagers on the Crow Indian Reservation in Montana. Her youngest son, Braven Glenn, was 17, a good student, dedicated to his basketball team. That November, Old Bull got a call saying Glenn was killed in a police car chase that resulted in a head-on collision with a […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by Vox.com and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.As President Donald Trump’s first week in office comes to a close, his biggest accomplishments are things many of us anticipated: chaos and confusion. Some of the many executive orders the president has signed do threaten democracy and others endanger the planet. But others […]
Mother JonesPop culture is full of lovable orphans. There’s Annie, of course, and Harry Potter, and the Boxcar Children, and James (with the Giant Peach), and Cinderella—the list goes on and on. They have familiar stories: The protagonist loses parents and finds themselves in dire straits, typically under the supervision of evil caretakers. But through grit, […]
Mother JonesChrystal Starbird, a cancer researcher at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, had been preparing to serve on her first National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant review panel at the end of January. On Wednesday, to her surprise, that meeting was abruptly canceled. These NIH panels, or “study sections,” typically involve a group […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published on Judd Legum’s Substack, Popular Information, to which you can subscribe here. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, was a top White House official during Trump’s first term. After exiting the White House in 2021, Kushner launched a new private equity firm, Affinity Partners, and announced he was seeking to raise $7 billion. […]
Mother JonesThe Trump administration has snuffed out a plan to ban menthol cigarettes, handing a victory to the tobacco industry after it waged a massive and at times deceptive lobbying campaign. The FDA proposed banning menthol cigarettes in 2022, amid pressure from groups including the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, the American Lung Association, and the NAACP, which […]
Mother JonesThe anti-abortion movement has launched a pressure campaign urging President Donald Trump’s administration to take steps toward a nationwide ban on medication abortion, the method used in nearly two-thirds of all abortions nationwide. On Wednesday, 30 leading anti-abortion activists sent a pair of letters to the acting heads of the Department of Justice and the […]
Mother JonesOn Monday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order aiming to restrict immigration, titled “Protecting The United States From Foreign Terrorists And Other National Security and Public Safety Threats.” It has been described as a revival of his first-term Muslim “travel ban,” making good on a campaign promise to bring back the controversial rule. Buried […]
Mother JonesIn early January, the Republican majority on the North Carolina Supreme Court blocked the state board of election from certifying the victory of Democratic Justice Allison Riggs after she led by 734 votes following two recounts. Riggs’s Republican opponent, Jefferson Griffin, asked the court to overturn the election by throwing out more than 60,000 ballots. […]
Mother JonesThe United States has been trying to annex Greenland for centuries. The massive island in the Artic—which is home to 56,000 people and holds vast oil and mineral reserves—is currently an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. In 1867, Secretary of State William H. Seward planned to purchase Greenland, but it fell apart; in […]
Mother JonesDonald Trump’s inauguration was a bacchanal of wealth and power attended by the first-, second-, third-, fifth-, and seventh-richest men on the planet. And the celebration displayed Trump’s uncomfortable mingling of his business and political empires, for among the VIPs rubbing shoulders with Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Sergey Brin were a cadre of Trump’s […]