The unique perspective and provocative opinions of Joe O’Neill
Trumpster Diving
“When President Trump was president, you didn’t see crisis after crisis. You just didn’t see it.”—This is former Trump press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, as seen through her Fox News revisionist lens.
Monetizing chaos and tragedy: Military contractor Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater, is offering charter flights out of Afghanistan at $6,000 per seat. Prince is the brother of former Trump Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. Too bad Jeff Bezos couldn’t just write a check.
If a federally imposed eviction moratorium is to continue, Congress must specifically authorize it.”—So spoke the conservative-majority U.S. Supreme Court. The action ends protections for some 3.5 million people in the U.S. facing evictions in the next two months. Another reminder how much presidential SCOTUS appointments—and who controls the Senate–matter.
Legacy update: Trump, even as a twice-impeached former president, manages, as we know, to stay prominent in the news cycle. But it’s not just “Stop the Steal” and “Vote for Herschel” rallies. We’ve now seen seven Capitol Police officers sue Trump for encouraging and supporting acts of violence that resulted in the Jan. 3 Capitol siege.