Mother Jones Reader—

What can I say? I don’t give up easily. We’re here at the Friday deadline but still haven’t raised enough this week to unlock the full $25,000 matching gift I wrote you about on Monday. This doesn’t just mean we’re leaving a few thousand matching dollars on the table. It signals the overall pace of our fundraising isn’t where it needs to be in this all-important couple of weeks before the end of our fiscal year. So we could fall short and not have all the resources we need to do our best work, as we head into what you and I know will be a challenging year that will test our fortitude and our principles.

If you didn’t get a chance before, I hope you’ll read my criticism below of how the billionaire-owned media can’t effectively cover Trump 2.0, as he poses a profound threat of authoritarianism. But my pitch to you boils down to this: There’s a vengeful and dangerous new administration coming to Washington. We need you to help Mother Jones be strong and ready for 2025, because the corporate press isn’t demonstrating that it’s up to the task.

Mother Jones Reader,

Donald Trump has many plans for his return engagement at the White House. Several will require police-state tactics.

I’m thinking about his promise to carry out mass deportations, as well as his intention of purging the civil service of anyone insufficiently loyal to him personally. I’ve written more about that and other MAGA wish list items here and in the latest issue of Mother Jones magazine. I hope you’ll find time to read it, but here’s what’s on my mind today: I’m worried that much of the media isn’t up to the task of covering the potential damage a second Trump administration can cause.

Before I go into all that, let me tell you how you can help Mother Jones can keep producing the fearless, kickass, truth-telling reporting that Americans sure as hell need now more than ever. Thanks to a $25,000 matching gift that a generous donor has given us, any gift you make online this week will be matched dollar-for-dollar. Your contribution of $25 will count for $50, and your gift of $50 will be worth $100.

But that’s for this week only. Don’t ask me why donors do these matching grants, but if we don’t raise the full twenty-five grand by Friday, we’ll be leaving money on the table. And who wants to do that! So that’s why I’ve come knocking to ask you to pitch in right now.

Across the media landscape, I see a line forming between news outlets that want to cover the Trump crowd in a relatively normal fashion and those that consider the overarching story to be the profound threat of authoritarianism posed by Trump 2.0. Which leaves me asking: Do the usual political stories—what the polls say, for instance—matter as much if Trump moves ahead with plans to deport millions and to place in power assorted extremists? Or if he takes steps to undermine democracy?

In 2018, Steve Bannon summed up the basic political strategy of Trumpism: “Flood the zone with shit.” That is, train a firehose of lies, nonsense, disinformation, propaganda, and outrageous actions on Democrats, progressives, the media, and the citizenry. None of them will be able to keep up fully and counter every piece of crap hurled in their direction. When so much garbage is flying, some portion of it will get through whatever defenses are raised and stick. This is exactly what’s been happening with Trump’s appointments for his second term. The parade of deplorables is too long for the public or the press to keep up with.

It's chilling to think that as this Trump sequel unfolds, there won’t be enough journalists to cover all his villainy and its consequences—either at the local or the national levels. Part of the reason is that the media industry has been decimated in the past two decades, with a sharp decline in news reporters on the beat. Having fewer watchdogs allows grifters, miscreants, and outright crooks to get away with more wrongdoing.

But Mother Jones has been able to thrive in an era when so many other news outlets have gone belly up. It’s no secret how or why: We deliver fierce journalism online and in print to an ever-growing audience. And we can do so because we are supported by our readers. We raise 70 percent of our budget from individual supporters. That’s no easy thing to do, but this affords us an independence that advertising-driven media doesn’t have. And our nonprofit newsroom can’t be bought. We get to passionately pursue wrongdoing, corruption, grift, and abuses of power without fear a billionaire owner or the business department is going to intervene and tell us to cool our heels.

Despite our own ability to conduct powerhouse investigations, I worry that too much of the media isn’t rising to the occasion. The gravitational pull within this industry encourages normalizing politicians and officials and eschewing evaluation and rendering judgments. Trump is a disinformation machine and a threat to democracy. But will these be the central narratives of the mainstream coverage of his second presidency? Can the media maintain the main plot: Trump presents a danger? A degree of acquiescence within certain media quarters is already obvious, and this signals an acceptance of Trump to the public.

As I’ve said before, news outfits should not declare themselves a wing of the anti-Trump resistance. That’s not our job. But in the Trump era, the press ought to think twice about serving up routine White House coverage, especially as Trump looks to limit press freedoms and continues his war on democratic norms and protections.

My suggestion is: not resistance, but not acceptance either. The public needs constant reminders and reports on the Trump crowd’s authoritarian plans, extremist policies, and grifting schemes. These are not conventional times; they require unconventional coverage.

That’s exactly the kind of coverage you’ve come to expect from Mother Jones. And it’s what my colleagues and I are working hard every day to bring you. That’s why this matching gift opportunity is so important. You’ve got a chance to help strengthen truth-telling independent journalism, and now your support can go twice as far when it gets matched dollar for dollar.

You know me. I’d rather be poring over documents and chasing sources than nudging you to send us money. But there’s an inescapable bottom line: We can’t do what we do without donations from our supporters—people who realize fearless journalism is more necessary now than ever. It may sound hackneyed—I know it sounds hackneyed—but, yes, every dollar counts. So please make a gift today—and it will be doubled.

As always, thanks for reading this, and thanks for having our back,

P.S. If the media rolls over, that will make it far easier for autocratic forces to roll over American democracy. But with your support, Mother Jones will be out there leading the way in showing the mainstream press how we must respond to this crisis and what should be done. Once more, please give now—before the match expires.