Mother Jones
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"Loitering is not permitted in this area," an audio recording sternly warns, as uniformed National Guard troops patrol Washington's iconic, algae-plagued reflecting pool. "Please proceed to a designated location." Journalist Amanda Moore's dystopian video, shot last weekend just steps from the Lincoln Memorial, instantly went viral—a perfect 8-second encapsulation of American democracy under Donald Trump. Amanda has spent the past 18 months documenting the chaos and brutality of the administration's militarized takeovers and immigration raids in cities across the country. Her footage has been shocking, often horrifying. But it's never before been quite so absurd. (Well, maybe once.) In her latest video report for Mother Jones, Amanda takes us on a tour of the Trumpified National Mall as the nation attempts to celebrate its 250th birthday. Not far from the reflecting pool's nanobubblers and security theater, there's a very different scene: Trump's Great America State Fair. When Amanda visited this marquee anniversary event, she found a dearth of visitors, a shortage of napkins, and a decaying model of the triumphal arch the president wants to build across the Potomac. The symbolism here is about as subtle as a Jon McNaughton painting. If I hadn't seen Amanda's reporting, I never would have believed it was real.
Mother Jones272,017 views • 26 days ago
When Ian Austin, an Army veteran, was arrested for protesting ICE in Minneapolis, he says he was detained and shackled for hours. “We're turning into something that I can't even begin to respect, and something that I literally went to war—or they told me I went to war—to fight against,” he says. Since he was arrested, he’s continued protesting. Mother Jones senior reporter Julia Lurie spoke to Austin outside the Whipple Federal Building, where ICE is based. “When they say, ‘Why would you be out here?’ How the fuck could I not be out here?” he says. “My nation is under attack."
Mother Jones545,949 views • 6 months ago
Locals didn’t think Roundup was being sprayed near Lake Tahoe. So @natethecurious went to find out. Nate dug up maps from the Forest Service's website, and headed to a spot where one of them indicated spraying might already be happening. Public uproar has echoed across the Tahoe area since April, when our yearlong Mother Jones investigation revealed that, in California, the fastest-growing use of glyphosate—the main ingredient in Roundup—is to spray forested areas, including this massive new project around Lake Tahoe. As the public outcry grew over the past few weeks, news begin circulating on social media that the Forest Service was backing off. “They cancelled the plan!" one person wrote. "People showed up to meetings, called our representatives and it’s finally cancelled. OUR VOICES MATTERED ON THIS ONE.” But that wasn't true. At Sierra-at-Tahoe, Nate stood on a mountainside that clearly had been doused in glyphosate. The plants around him were nearly all dead—killed with the controversial herbicide, which the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer has deemed a probable human carcinogen—and that a 2020 report from the US Environmental Protection Agency said likely harms 93 percent of endangered species. You can read Nate's full report at
Mother Jones119,345 views • 2 months ago
NEW: “I feel like North Korea has more democracy than we do in the state of Tennessee, and it's terrifying to me that we're in this march to fascism,” Rep. Gloria Johnson tells our Garrison Hayes in this exclusive sit-down on the eve of her possible expulsion from the TN Assembly.
Mother Jones1,570,416 views • 3 years ago
"Loitering is not permitted in this area," an audio recording sternly warns, as uniformed National Guard troops patrol Washington's iconic, algae-plagued reflecting pool. "Please proceed to a designated location." In her latest video report for Mother Jones, amanda moore 🐢 takes us on a tour of the Trumpified National Mall as the nation attempts to celebrate its 250th birthday:
Mother Jones41,984 views • 24 days ago
Did Hasan Piker just soft endorse billionaire Tom Steyer? “Tom Steyer could be a very interesting governor for the state,” the prolific streamer and political commentator said. He and Garrison Hayes sat down to talk about politics and his perspective on the 2026 gubernatorial race in California. His top pick—for the time being at least—might surprise you. “I talked to Tom Steyer, I interviewed him, and, I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think he's the most interesting candidate with viability right now,” said Piker. Find the full interview on our YouTube channel or at
Mother Jones151,553 views • 3 months ago
The recent Supreme Court decision in Louisiana v. Callais effectively killed the last remaining provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. And it represents the life's work of Chief Justice John Roberts. Here's how Roberts has been steadily working for more than 40 years to destroy the country's most important civil rights law:
Mother Jones70,650 views • 2 months ago
There's a dark truth behind Trump's tariffs: Absolute control.
Mother Jones300,739 views • 1 year ago
She said she was headed to a doctor's appointment. Federal agents still attacked her. Earlier today in Minneapolis, journalist Amanda Moore (amanda moore 🐢) documented a tense, chaotic federal operation near 34th Street and Park Avenue. The scenes unfolded amid a broader surge of federal immigration enforcement in the Twin Cities following the fatal shooting of Renée Good by an ICE officer last week.
Mother Jones131,939 views • 6 months ago
Reporter Nate Halverson took to the sky to get an aerial view of forestlands sprayed with the world's most controversial herbicide, glyphosate. The imagery from above was startling, as the extent of the barren land sprayed with glyphosate became apparent. The practice of spraying glyphosate—AKA Roundup—in the woods is now the fastest-growing market for the world's most widely used herbicide, according to 5 million state records analyzed by Mother Jones. An April investigation by Halverson that revealed the extent of the spraying has sparked a national debate over the practice and elicited pointed questions from members of Congress overseeing the Forest Service, leading some to call for an end to spraying in sensitive forestlands. The World Health Organization has called glyphosate a probable carcinogen, and the EPA has said it likely harms 93 percent of endangered species and is especially detrimental in areas like forests. The manufacturer Bayer says it is safe when used as directed. The United States Forest Service and timber companies say they use the controversial herbicide to reforest land that has burned in wildfires or been harvested by loggers. These foresters believe that by killing all other plant life, they help trees regrow faster by reducing competition for sunlight, water and soil nutrients. Record amounts of it have now been sprayed across the forest, according to state pesticide reports. In Lassen National Forest, the federal government plans to spray about 10,000 acres with the herbicide. Halverson flew over the area to see both the land planned for spraying and the private timberland where extensive spraying has already taken place within and surrounding the national forest. Sierra Pacific Industries, a timber company, is the second-largest user of glyphosate in California, according to state records analyzed by Mother Jones.
Mother Jones23,135 views • 27 days ago
Rep. Ilhan Omar tears into Trump with a defiant protest: "You have killed Americans!" The confrontation began after Trump scolded Democrats for not standing and applauding during a portion of his speech during which he claimed that the “first duty of the American government is to protect American cities, not illegal aliens.”
Mother Jones91,491 views • 5 months ago
ICE has been authorizing officers to forcibly enter homes without judicial warrants—a reversal of longstanding guidance to protect people's constitutional rights. Senior reporter Samantha Michaels found a family in Memphis that experienced this in November. Six kids were home with their mother, all US citizens, when federal agents bust into the room. Read the story here:
Mother Jones72,909 views • 6 months ago
SCOOP: RFK Jr. suggests creating "wellness farms" to "reparent" those struggling with addiction by growing organic food and taking away screens. But it's not just addiction. He says it'll also be a place for people with ADHD and depression to get off SSRIs and antidepressants.
Mother Jones206,136 views • 2 years ago
Donald Trump is “making fun of people for being Hispanic or dark-skinned or different colors,” says 10 year old, August. "Why is he talking to other people if he's orange?!” Hear from the kids at the No Kings protests—and from the parents who decided to bring them.
Mother Jones92,132 views • 9 months ago
The largest part of the Supreme Court's 194-page decision on birthright citizenship is Justice Clarence Thomas's dissent—a massive alternate history of citizenship, the Civil War, and Reconstruction. To Thomas, the 14th Amendment applied only to the freed people after the Civil War because they were domiciled in the US and owed no allegiance to a foreign power—interpreting the rule as limited to one period and one population. In a concurrence that spotlights the role Black people played in shaping the 14th Amendment, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson takes on Justice Thomas. “The Reconstruction Amendments were an anticaste, antisubordination reset for the Nation,” she wrote, “not a mere spot treatment for the dark stain of slavery.” "The teacher who scolds a student for bullying a classmate hopes the student learns the broader lesson of treating everyone with kindness," Jackson writes. "Not just that one kid." Watch Mother Jones reporters Isabela Dias and Pema Levy dissect the decision with Garrison Hayes.
Mother Jones13,067 views • 26 days ago