SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Trump Shut Down White House Comment Line, So This Tool Lets You Call One of His Businesses to Complain
"By not divesting himself from his businesses, he's actually creating satellite White Houses all over the world," says the team behind WhiteHouseInc.org
Jan 30, 2017
The digital team behind Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential primary run, Revolution Messaging, has launched a creative way for people to lodge complaints against the right-wing Trump administration while calling attention to the president's continued refusal to fully divest from his business empire.
"Foreign leaders and Wall Street executives know that if they want to reach out to our President, they can just connect with his business associates. Now the American people have a direct line to Trump too."
--WhiteHouseInc.org
Visitors to WhiteHouseInc.org are asked for their phone number and then connected with a Trump property. "You may be asked to make a reservation or a tee-time, but tell management that until Trump steps away from his businesses for real, their property is no different from the Oval Office and you want to talk about the issues that matter most," the website reads.
It continues:
By not divesting himself from his businesses, he's actually creating satellite White Houses all over the world. That means we have dozens of phone numbers we can use to reach the president and discuss the issues that matter most.
Foreign leaders and Wall Street executives know that if they want to reach out to our President, they can just connect with his business associates. Now the American people have a direct line to Trump too.
President Donald Trump was sued on his first full business day in office for being in violation of the Constitution by illegally receiving payments from foreign governments through his hotels and real estate deals abroad. His plan to hand over control of his businesses to his adult sons was denounced as "meaningless" by the nation's top ethics official.
The White House comment line (202-456-1111) that used to be open to the public is now "currently closed," per an automated recording. Callers are told to direct their comments through WhiteHouse.gov or Facebook.
But as BBC notes, "trying to find the White House on Facebook messenger is tricky too."
"The recording doesn't say which of the government's official Facebook accounts callers should visit in order to access Messenger, but neither the White House Facebook page nor President Trump or Vice President [Mike] Pence's Facebook pages currently appears to have Facebook Messenger enabled," the news outlet writes.
So instead, Revolution Messaging urges: "Pour yourself a little Trump vodka and call White House Inc. today!" The group says it has thus far connected more than 10,000 calls.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Deirdre Fulton
Deirdre Fulton is a former Common Dreams senior editor and staff writer. Previously she worked as an editor and writer for the Portland Phoenix and the Boston Phoenix, where she was honored by the New England Press Association and the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. A Boston University graduate, Deirdre is a co-founder of the Maine-based Lorem Ipsum Theater Collective and the PortFringe theater festival. She writes young adult fiction in her spare time.
The digital team behind Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential primary run, Revolution Messaging, has launched a creative way for people to lodge complaints against the right-wing Trump administration while calling attention to the president's continued refusal to fully divest from his business empire.
"Foreign leaders and Wall Street executives know that if they want to reach out to our President, they can just connect with his business associates. Now the American people have a direct line to Trump too."
--WhiteHouseInc.org
Visitors to WhiteHouseInc.org are asked for their phone number and then connected with a Trump property. "You may be asked to make a reservation or a tee-time, but tell management that until Trump steps away from his businesses for real, their property is no different from the Oval Office and you want to talk about the issues that matter most," the website reads.
It continues:
By not divesting himself from his businesses, he's actually creating satellite White Houses all over the world. That means we have dozens of phone numbers we can use to reach the president and discuss the issues that matter most.
Foreign leaders and Wall Street executives know that if they want to reach out to our President, they can just connect with his business associates. Now the American people have a direct line to Trump too.
President Donald Trump was sued on his first full business day in office for being in violation of the Constitution by illegally receiving payments from foreign governments through his hotels and real estate deals abroad. His plan to hand over control of his businesses to his adult sons was denounced as "meaningless" by the nation's top ethics official.
The White House comment line (202-456-1111) that used to be open to the public is now "currently closed," per an automated recording. Callers are told to direct their comments through WhiteHouse.gov or Facebook.
But as BBC notes, "trying to find the White House on Facebook messenger is tricky too."
"The recording doesn't say which of the government's official Facebook accounts callers should visit in order to access Messenger, but neither the White House Facebook page nor President Trump or Vice President [Mike] Pence's Facebook pages currently appears to have Facebook Messenger enabled," the news outlet writes.
So instead, Revolution Messaging urges: "Pour yourself a little Trump vodka and call White House Inc. today!" The group says it has thus far connected more than 10,000 calls.
Deirdre Fulton
Deirdre Fulton is a former Common Dreams senior editor and staff writer. Previously she worked as an editor and writer for the Portland Phoenix and the Boston Phoenix, where she was honored by the New England Press Association and the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. A Boston University graduate, Deirdre is a co-founder of the Maine-based Lorem Ipsum Theater Collective and the PortFringe theater festival. She writes young adult fiction in her spare time.
The digital team behind Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential primary run, Revolution Messaging, has launched a creative way for people to lodge complaints against the right-wing Trump administration while calling attention to the president's continued refusal to fully divest from his business empire.
"Foreign leaders and Wall Street executives know that if they want to reach out to our President, they can just connect with his business associates. Now the American people have a direct line to Trump too."
--WhiteHouseInc.org
Visitors to WhiteHouseInc.org are asked for their phone number and then connected with a Trump property. "You may be asked to make a reservation or a tee-time, but tell management that until Trump steps away from his businesses for real, their property is no different from the Oval Office and you want to talk about the issues that matter most," the website reads.
It continues:
By not divesting himself from his businesses, he's actually creating satellite White Houses all over the world. That means we have dozens of phone numbers we can use to reach the president and discuss the issues that matter most.
Foreign leaders and Wall Street executives know that if they want to reach out to our President, they can just connect with his business associates. Now the American people have a direct line to Trump too.
President Donald Trump was sued on his first full business day in office for being in violation of the Constitution by illegally receiving payments from foreign governments through his hotels and real estate deals abroad. His plan to hand over control of his businesses to his adult sons was denounced as "meaningless" by the nation's top ethics official.
The White House comment line (202-456-1111) that used to be open to the public is now "currently closed," per an automated recording. Callers are told to direct their comments through WhiteHouse.gov or Facebook.
But as BBC notes, "trying to find the White House on Facebook messenger is tricky too."
"The recording doesn't say which of the government's official Facebook accounts callers should visit in order to access Messenger, but neither the White House Facebook page nor President Trump or Vice President [Mike] Pence's Facebook pages currently appears to have Facebook Messenger enabled," the news outlet writes.
So instead, Revolution Messaging urges: "Pour yourself a little Trump vodka and call White House Inc. today!" The group says it has thus far connected more than 10,000 calls.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.