Stephanie Mencimer

Staff writer at Mother Jones. Utah native. Tips to [email protected] Secure coms: Signal smencimer.48 or [email protected]

[Stephanie Mencimer @smencimer]

Someone should go to prison for this

[Erin Banco @ErinBanco]

NEW: The order to limit a satellite system used by Ukraine for battlefield communications and drone operations came from inside the White House, according to two US officials and a Western official briefed on the matter.

[Nate Weisberg @WeisbergNate]

I asked Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand if it bothers her that her staff trades crypto while she works on legislation that benefits the industry. “This is not a nanny state,” she said.

Profiled crypto’s favorite Democrat for @NYMag:

https://t.co/PqPTKL0ea1

[Stephanie Mencimer @smencimer]

Drone strikes didn’t take out a Russian bot farm, but we were primed to believe it  https://t.co/WTihk3xr1u

[Stephanie Mencimer @smencimer]

Actual press release from the White House just now

[Stephanie Mencimer @smencimer]

The constitutional crisis arrives at the golf course

[Scott MacFarlane @MacFarlaneNews]

Whoa. Fire from Judge Ana Reyes just now

"I don't know how I could've made it clearer!"

"What has happened has cost the government all of its credibility!"

Judge says Team Trump needed to - but didn't -- alert court before toppling of 100s of trees at DC's East Potomac Park

[Andrew Leyden @PenguinSix]

Emergency halt to tree trimming in East Potomac Golf Course ordered by a DC judge while they consider a longer ban tomorrow.

[Sean Kilcarr @AASHTOsean]

A recent @IIHS_autosafety study says #cargo #vans & work pickups struggle in #pedestrian #crash avoidance tests. #roadway #transportation #road #highway #street #motorist #walking @aashtospeaks https://t.co/3Wm0pjS5Zf

[Save East Po @SaveEastPo]

What happened today was a blitzkrieg on a public park. A cherished DMV space. If you are not livid about the circumstances that led up to this and what exactly the Federal government did in the past 24 hours I don’t know what to tell you.

Let’s do a quick timeline:

1. Last night, a Friday before a long weekend, at 5PM, government lawyers filed a notice that tree cutting would begin in earnest today. The stated reason was a pretext - apparently fulfilling a 2019 Cultural Landscape Review on East Potomac. This was clearly an excuse to bring the gangs in.

For months the government has stated there is no plan, nothing has been decided, going to follow the law. Ya, right.

2. At 5:30AM this morning, 3-4 dozen workers assembled at East Potomac Park. The blitzkrieg began shortly thereafter. They were given clear orders to fell as many trees as possible.

3. For hours, from 6AM until 4PM today, nothing but chainsaws. Healthy trees, old trees, all would come down. No clear estimate for the extent but at least 100 trees came down.

The devastation is apparent. Entire groves cleared. Not a single animal on the peninsula. Not a sound aside from the roar of chainsaws. Earth ripped to pieces.

Anybody that thinks it is acceptable to shred public lands to appeal to the vanity of the President of the United States needs their head examined.

We have been sounding the alarm on this for months. For months we knew this day would come. Where the President would, under dubious legal pretexts, sic his goons on a beloved public space.

This is not a local issue. This is fundamentally a question of if we the people own our public lands or the temporary resident of the White House does.

@jamie_raskin @JaredHuffman @DonBeyerVA @glenniveymd @MarkWarner @AlsobrooksForMD @timkaine @ChrisVanHollen

[Stephanie Mencimer @smencimer]

I love that it looks like there's a woman beating him

[FactPost @factpostnews]

Pete Hegseth trails behind the crowd while running with troops in San Diego

[FactPost @factpostnews]

Pete Hegseth trails behind the crowd while running with troops in San Diego

[Stephanie Mencimer @smencimer]

Some have suggested Utah Gov. Spencer Cox should run for president (@jmart), seeing him as a moderate Republican people could get behind. But he's incredibly polarizing in his home state, as seen in the reaction to his new book on--depolarization. https://t.co/nbfYmIUa6v

[Headquarters @HQNewsNow]

Here is Trump completely passed out on live television for 4 minutes straight

[Mother Jones @MotherJones]

A book-banning GOP governor wants you to… buy his book??

Utah Governor Spencer Cox is touring national TV—from Jon Stewart to CNN—to sell his new book, Off Ramp: How to Be a Peacemaker in an Age of Contempt. He’s preaching political depolarization, but back home, his approval ratings have plunged 23 points since April.

Turns out, signing laws that remove fluoride from drinking water, replace Pride Month with “Fidelity Month,” and enact one of the country’s most extreme book-banning measures doesn't exactly make you a unifier.

So far, Utah has banned 44 titles from public schools statewide—including works by Toni Morrison, Stephen King, and Sarah J. Maas—with the state even requiring schools to destroy banned copies so they don't accidentally fall into the hands of an unsuspecting youth.

But the governor’s book-banning decision may now be coming back to haunt him as he tries to get people to buy his own book. When reporter Stephanie Mencimer went looking for an Off Ramp book signing in Utah, she discovered Cox wasn't doing any events in his own state in the first weeks after it came out.

Instead, Mencimer showed the governor’s peacemaking prose to legendary Salt Lake City bookseller Ken Sanders, whose shop proudly displays a “We Buy Banned Books” sign. His reaction to Cox’s dust-jacket pledge of harmony? “Oof. That ain't you, babe. You’re one of the dividers.”

Sanders isn't the only local rolling his eyes. When venerable Salt Lake City bookstore The King’s English announced a pre-order promotion for Cox's book, the backlash from furious customers was swift and brutal. Reddit blew up, and the store's co-owner noted the outrage was worse than when a bomb threat forced them to cancel a drag queen story time in 2023. The promotional offer was promptly canceled.

Critics point out the tremendous irony of Cox’s “peacemaker” tour: under Utah’s sweeping law—which he signed despite pleas from First Amendment advocates—it takes a challenge in just three conservative school districts to ban a book statewide.

Yet the governor who handed far-right activists the keys to purge school libraries is now selling a guide on how to get along.

Reporting by Stephanie Mencimer
Video by Peter Berger

[Stephanie Mencimer @smencimer]

Book-Banning Utah Governor: Buy My Book! https://t.co/58h4rBnlGC

[Mother Jones @MotherJones]

One of the Trump family’s most lucrative businesses is on its way to becoming a bank.

And it’s set to be regulated by a government entity whose leader was appointed by, you guessed it, President Donald Trump. https://t.co/pMwT34oeqC

[Stephanie Mencimer @smencimer]

@semaforben You found a cab?

[Stephanie Mencimer @smencimer]

DC-area residents are used to the occasional military flyover. But the onslaught of war machines flying over DC since Trump took office last year is a whole new level of torture. I crunched some numbers: https://t.co/3hzDDFlgu7

[Kiera Butler @kieraevebutler]

Hi all—Working on a follow-up on my investigation with @pablofindsout on Life Surge, the org that Tim Tebow paused his relationship with.

Looking for current or recent (last 6 mos) students of SurgeU or attendees of Life Surge 3-day classes. DM me or https://t.co/KJF88xW1NR

[Stephanie Mencimer @smencimer]

Can't say I'm that surprised about Trump using taxpayer money to run campaign ads about himself. He started abusing federal resources for campaigns during his first term, just in a quieter way. https://t.co/zJNsTO7Lql via @MotherJones

[Stephanie Mencimer @smencimer]

OMG noooo! Trump administration considers building baseball park in Grand Teton National Park https://t.co/gV8vRFrNPd