Trump takes on the homelessness problem

Street Sweepers

The Trump Administration’s plans to completely reshape the nation’s homeless policy got lost in last week’s tidal wave of news. They intend to address the “root causes” of homelessness by enforcing prohibitions on illegal drug use, urban camping and squatting. “Shifting homeless individuals into long-term institutional settings for humane treatment through the appropriate use of civil commitment will restore public order,” the White House announced.

This is  a curious order. It’s a reverse of a Reagan-era policy of emptying out the asylums and also a harsh rebuke of the policies of progressive cities, who offer safe consumption sites and Narcan vending machines. The law is somewhat compassionate but also calls for the expansion of drug courts and says that HUD must “increase requirements that persons participating in the recipients’ programs who suffer from substance use disorder or serious mental illness use substance abuse treatment or mental health services as a condition of participation.”

Realistically, homelessness isn’t a federal problem. It’s a state and local one. How in the world is the federal government going to house even a small percentage of our 275,000 homeless people, a large percentage of whom are, frankly, beyond help? It’s a serious situation, and, unlike sworn opponents of the current federal administration, Cockburn believes that there are people in the White House who take our problems seriously. But he’d bet a box of wine that this isn’t going to move the needle, even at a needle exchange.

MEGA SCHMOOZE

Apparently not satisfied with naming the Kennedy Center Opera House after First Lady Melania Trump, Republican Congressman Bob Onder of Missouri is now pushing a bill that would rename the entire Kennedy Center after President Trump himself. “I cannot think of a more ubiquitous symbol of American exceptionalism in the arts, entertainment, and popular culture at large than President Trump,” Onder said about the Make Entertainment Great Again (MEGA) Act.

Like the rest of you, Cockburn finds Donald Trump supremely entertaining, but renaming the Kennedy Center for him just reeks of Dear Leaderism. Not surprisingly, the Kennedy family agrees. “The Trump administration stands for freedom of oppression, not expression,” said JFK’s grandson Jack Schlossberg. Talk about Les Miserables!

While Cockburn considers Schlossberg’s statement an overwrought millennialism, why rename an arts institution after Trump when there are already so many big, beautiful buildings with his name on them? A counterproposal: Trump is already planning to hold a UFC fight on the White House Lawn as part of America’s 250th birthday celebration. He loves the fights. Instead of sticking his name on a boring ballet theater, why not rename D.C.’s Capital One Center the Trump Center? He’d reach a bigger audience with vastly more popular entertainments. This is an idea that would piledrive Americans through the ages. Also, we’d finally find out what’s in Trump’s wallet. Let’s get ready to rumble!

On our radar

STOP IT, VLAD President Trump is once again urging Vladimir Putin to commit to a ceasefire with Ukraine in “10 or 12 days” or face economic penalties – a much shorter deadline than he has previously given.

BIG, BEAUTIFUL INJUNCTION US District Judge Indira Talwani issued a preliminary injunction blocking a section of the Big, Beautiful Bill, which would have cut Planned Parenthood off from Medicaid funds.

MANHATTAN SHOOTING Four people are dead after Shane Devon Tamura, 27, opened fire in a Midtown Manhattan skyscraper. Police found a note in Tamura’s pocket blaming C.T.E. for his mental instability.  

The Mysterious Epstein Island

Speaking to reporters during his golf and fleece-the-EU trip to Scotland, President Trump took a moment to illegitimize the Epstein Files once again, renewing the claims that “the whole thing was fake,” altered by people who hated him, and irrelevant. His many enemies, he said, would have released the files already if they contained anything of substance against him.

One reporter asked the President to explain why he cut ties with Epstein in the early 2000s. “For years I wouldn’t talk to Jeffrey Epstein. I wouldn’t talk, because he did something that was inappropriate,” Trump said. “He hired help, and I said, ‘Don’t ever do that again.’ He stole people that worked for me. I said don’t ever do that again, and he did it again, and I threw him out of the place… I’m glad I did if you want to know the truth.” 

Unprompted, Trump added, “And by the way, I never went to the island, and Bill Clinton went there supposedly uh 28 times… I never had the privilege of going to his island, and I did turn it down, but a lot of people in Palm Beach were invited to his island.”

Cockburn noticed that CNN rather predictably cut this last accusation out of its aired footage. But it’s also curious that Trump is pointing the blame finger at Clinton for a tidbit found in the “fake” files, when he refuses to acknowledge them otherwise.

Up next: the results of Ghislaine Maxwell’s DoJ interview, which Cockburn is certain has nothing to do with Donald Trump in the slightest.