Mother Jones
Federal workers comprise less than one percent of the US population, but are responsible for facilitating programs that help all 330-plus million Americans have access to health care, veterans’ services, safe transportation, clean water, nutritional assistance, and so much more. On Tuesday evening, a memo titled “Fork in the Road,” from a mysterious Office of […]
Mother JonesDuring his campaign, President Donald Trump frequently repeated the inflammatory and outrageous lie that, without parents’ knowledge, schools are sending children for gender-affirming surgeries. During a campaign stop filmed by Fox News at a Bronx, New York, barbershop, Trump answered a voter’s question about failing school systems by saying, “No transgender, no operations—you know, they […]
Mother JonesLast Friday, my colleague Julianne McShane and I broke the news of a pair of letters sent by 30 prominent anti-abortion movement leaders to the heads of the Departments of Health and Human Services and Justice, asking them to use the powers of their agencies to attack abortion pills. During his contentious confirmation hearing as […]
Mother JonesTrump’s first week back in office delivered what he does best: dystopian showmanship. Photos of deportation flights released with glee; shots of the military deployed to the border to handle an “invasion” at its lowest levels in years. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) publishing on social media numbers of arrests and deportations (not that much […]
Mother JonesTwo decades ago, while serving in President George W. Bush’s Justice Department, Steven Bradbury wrote a series of memos justifying waterboarding that former Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) called “permission slips for torture.” Now, Bradbury is Donald Trump’s nominee for Deputy Transportation Secretary. When it comes to writing about why the United States can torture, Bradbury […]
Mother JonesA few hours into his confirmation hearings on Wednesday, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., President Trump’s nominee for Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services, had a tense exchange with Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN). The subject was Kennedy’s misleading claims that antidepressants caused teenagers to commit school shootings. As Smith pointed out, reams […]
Mother JonesSix minutes into his opening statement at his confirmation hearing Wednesday, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. lied. President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services brazenly repeated a statement that has been cited as false multiple times. “News reports claim I am anti-vaccine…I am not,” he said in his opening statement […]
Mother JonesDuring his confirmation hearing on Wednesday, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, glossed over key details about his involvement in the 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa that killed 83 people, most of whom were unvaccinated children. Under oath, Kennedy claimed that his trip to […]
Mother JonesThis week, the FBI’s Office of Integrity and Compliance issued a memo ordering that posters mentioning diversity should be taken down. The memo, signed by Catherine Bruno, the office’s assistant director, stated that diversity had been considered one of the agency’s “core values,” along with accountability, compassion, fairness, integrity, leadership, respect, and “rigorous obedience to […]
Mother JonesIn 2016, Chris Turner, a new father in Georgia, began a process familiar to many parents: He set about trying to plan his children’s education. His neighborhood schools failed to impress him; they were too rigid, with too much busy work. To his dismay, he found that despite the hefty price tags for private schools, […]
Mother JonesOn the first day of his second term, President Donald Trump created the Department of Government Efficiency he had promised after winning the 2024 election. Watchdog groups were ready to challenge DOGE from the start under the assumption it would fall under the legal rules governing outside government advisory groups. Indeed, within minutes of Trump’s […]
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. The media has failed the public on a crucial matter: the derangement […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by Vox.com and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. If you pick through Donald Trump’s parade of executive orders upon taking office on January 20, you’ll discover many that revoke orders made by Joe Biden. But in one, Trump dug even further back: He revoked an executive order issued by Jimmy Carter in […]
Mother JonesThis piece is adapted from Holy Ground: On Activism, Environmental Justice, and Finding Hope by Catherine Coleman Flowers, published by Spiegel & Grau on January 28, 2025. Just before Christmas in 1965, my mother was recovering from the birth of her fifth child, David, at the John A. Andrew Memorial Hospital, on the campus of the […]
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. The media has failed the public on a crucial matter: the derangement […]
Mother JonesIn 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 […]