The unique perspective and provocative opinions of Joe O’Neill
Trumpster Diving
According to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll, 66 percent of Republicans continue to say that President Joe Biden was illegitimately elected. Other results: 76 percent of Republicans view Trump favorably, while 41 percent say they are optimistic about the GOP’s future.
“It’s an existential predicament: (Trump) can’t be Trump without a claim on the presidency. He can’t hold the attention and devotion of the Republican Party if he is not both once and future king—and why would he ever give that up?”—Michael Wolff, author of “Landslide: The Final Days of the Trump Presidency.”
So, Trump fundraiser Tom Barrack has been charged with acting as an unregistered agent of the United Arab Emirates. Yet more fallout from those in Trump’s conniving circle. Call it scandal inflation.
“I was on the lower west terrace fighting alongside these officers, and all of them, all of them were telling us Trump sent us. Nobody else. It was nobody else. It was not antifa, it was not Black Lives Matter, it was not the FBI; it was his supporters that he sent them over to the Capitol that day.”—U.S. Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, testifying before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol siege.
“Take Nixon in the deepest days of his Watergate paranoia, subtract 50 IQ points, add Twitter, and you have Trump today.”—Bruce Bartlett, historian and former domestic adviser to President Ronald Reagan.
“Just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican Congressmen.”—That was Trump, in a December call to then-Acting Attorney Jeffrey Rosen. Weeks before, AG William Barr revealed that the Justice Department had found no evidence of widespread fraud (that could have overturned the results).
The DOJ now says the Treasury Department must provide the former president’s tax returns to the House Ways and Means Committee.
Trump’s political war chest through the first six months of 2021: $102 million. Obvious bottom line: Trump wants to be the mid-term king-maker or regain his disgraced throne.