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Former US President Donald Trump speaks at the East Palestine Fire Department in East Palestine, ... [+] Ohio, on February 22, 2023. (Photo by REBECCA DROKE/AFP via Getty Images)
Take a wild guess as to whos providing Trump Water to residents of East Palestine, Ohio. And take a wild guess as to whos told everyone about it.
Well, you probably dont need 45 guesses. The answer to both of these questions was the 45th U.S. President and current Mar-A-Lago resident Donald Trump. On February 22, Trump visited the Eastern Ohio site of the massive train and environmental accident that Ive described for Forbes. This was one day before U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg was scheduled to visit the town in person for the first time since the Norfolk Southern NSC train derailed on February 3. And in addition to a fresh supply of red Make American Great Again hats and lots of references to himself, Trump did bring some other things: namely bottled water, cleaning supplies, and some Goya beans. In a speech given alongside local officials, Trump declared, Were bringing in thousands of bottles of water, Trump Water, actually. Most of it, uh, some of it, we had to go to a much lesser quality of water, as you can see in the video tweeted by journalist Aaron Rupar:
Bottled water was probably a welcome stopgap sight for East Palestine residents who have been clamoring for more attention from authorities. The whole train wreck of the situation has left many questions about the water quality there. The derailment and subsequent fire and controlled release of hazardous materials have resulted in billow and billows of dangerous chemicals like vinyl chloride going into the air and potentially into the land and water in the surrounding Eastern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania area. It remains to be seen what the longer term effects of all this pollution may be. So you can understand why the residents might be skeptical about drinking the tap water there.
Now, its not clear what would make Trump Water different from other types of water. For example, is it somehow wetter than other types of water? Some on Twitter have suggested that the water may be 13-years old, which may be good for wine but may not be great for water sitting in plastic bottles. For example, heres what Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-New York) tweeted:
And its not clear how many of the bottles provided by Trump actually had Trumps name on it or perhaps something like an image of him with lasers coming out of his eyes.
Nevertheless, a number of East Palestine residents thanked Trump for his visit and the supplies that he brought. He, in turn, couldnt quite keep his delivery bottled up and added, You want to get those Trump bottles more than anybody else. Trump also spent some time mixing with the East Palestine residents as the following tweet from The Associated Press showed:
His visit included a stop at, surprise, surprise, a local McDonalds, where he ordered food for first responders. During his visit, Trump, not surprisingly, criticized the Biden Administration for not doing more for East Palestine because criticize others is what many politicians do. For example, he told East Palestine residents, In too many cases, your goodness and perseverance were met with indifference and betrayal. Various residents did thank Trump for visiting and not forgetting about them.
Meanwhile, various politicians have continued their finger-pointing-from-far that has been going on for the past couple weeks. For example, Senator Marco Rubio (R-Florida) called Buttigieg m.i.a. on the derailment, which presumably meant missing in action rather than Miami International Airport. Buttigieg, in turn, fired back, accusing Rubio of signing a 2021 letter that supports waivers that would reduce visual track inspections, as you can see in the Twitter exchange below:
Trumps visit and deliverance of some bottled water drew praise from many of his supporters on social media. This helped the words Trump Water to trend on Twitter. However, others didnt keep their skeptical opinions about the Trump show bottled up. They blamed the East Palestine crash on the Trump Administration for rescinding rail safety protections that the Obama Administration had put in place. For example, The Lincoln Project called Trumps visit purely political theatre and a sad attempt to mask his failures as a President in the following tweet:
Theres also the question about how much the Trump Administration had weakened the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) during his time in office. After all, Trump wasnt exactly known as the environmental President. Hes the guy who once said, I never understood wind, when arguing against the use of windmills. And when he wasnt trying to break wind, Trump installed energy industry insiders Scott Pruitt and then Andrew R. Wheeler as EPA Administrators during his time in the White House. The Trump Administration also dismantled close to 100 policies that were focused on protecting the air, water, wildlife, and people against pollution and toxic chemicals, as described by Nadja Popovich, Livia Albeck-ripka, and Kendra Pierre-louis for the New York Times NYT .
Its not clear how much the Biden Administration has been able to re-bolster the EPA in the two years since President Joe Biden took office. Consumer advocate and environmental activist Erin Brockovich pointed out that the EPA has not exactly been swimming in resources:
So the bigger need is funding to assist with the clean up of all that junk thats been spewed into the environment. The EPA has announced that Norfolk Southern will be responsible for cleanup costs as this tweet from the CBS Evening News indicated:
But dont hold your breath about how much Norfolk Southern will end up paying until it actually happens.
One things for sure, theres been plenty of blame to go around for the current mess in East Palestine. While bottled water, cleaning supplies, and beans may seem to help East Palestine residents in the short term, they can only provide so much relief. They are far from enough to compensate for the lack of railroad safety regulations that could have prevented the derailment in the first place. At the same time, Trump wouldnt have had the opportunity to swoop in on Wednesday had there been more attention paid to the East Palestine residents during the nearly three weeks since the train went off its tracks. Additionally, the EPA needs to have resources to be able to prevent and respond to pollution and environmental disasters. Our environment isnt just some toilet bowl where you can dump some oopsies into and quickly flush them away. The Norfolk Southern accident could have wide-ranging effects on the surrounding ecosystem. In other words, it will be the people of the U.S. who will end up paying for it in many ways.
This Norfolk Southern disaster has gone off the rails in many ways. While providing bottled water may seem like a nice short term stopgap and makes for good photo ops, it doesnt really solve the bigger problems. It doesnt really provide more funding to relief and environmental efforts. It doesnt help prevent a similar situation from happening again. It ends up being essentially a watered down solution rather than one that actually fixes the bigger problems.
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Donald Trump Provides Trump Water To East Palestine, Ohio ...
Oh, its wonderful to be here in the town of East Palestine, not a great name, said the James Austin Johnson-portrayed Donald Trump tonight, kicking off Saturday Night Live. Im here and I brought hats, cameras and hats, he added after taking a swipe at Joe Biden for visiting the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv and Volodymyr Zelenskyyearlier this week and had a visit from his own legal troubles.
Woody Harrelsons Chaotic SNL Monologue Includes Covid Crack; Scarlett Johansson Surprises Host With Five-Timers Club Jacket
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Thats why you need me, the MAGA hat-wearing SNL Trump went on to say. I feel like I could Schitts Creek this place, he added, a reference to the multi-Emmy winning comedy.
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Just over three days after the former and looking to be future POTUS made a self-aggrandizing trip to the small Ohio town savaged by a massive chemical burn-off that followed a train derailment, tonights SNL cold open definitely started out timelier than most the show has had this 48th season. Having done double duty for months as both Trump and Biden, Johnson again enthusiastically showed the former is his strong suit.
Modelling what was a train wreck of an appearance by the real-life trump in East Palestine on Wednesday, Johnson riffed on the beautiful rainbows and discoloration of the towns water, Rihannas Super Bowl halftime show and your train exploded and who do we blame?
The answer from SNLs Trump, as in real life, was Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
Story continues
This was his responsibility. Unfortunately, he was too busy being a nerd and being gay, Johnsons Trump deadpanned to big laughs. But this would have never happened under my administration. People are saying I made the trains less safe. Not true. Okay, not true. I did a lot for trains. I made them bigger, faster, less safe perhaps.
Coming a day after the one-year anniversary of Russias brutish invasion of Ukraine, tonights edition of the long-running NBC late-nighter had plenty of material to draw from. Beside the very serious war on the Eastern edge of NATO, there is the crazy and deadly wet weather in California, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greens Presidents Day call for a national divorce, and escalating friction in GOP ranks as ex-pals Trump and Ron DeSantis bicker and foot-stamp over the 2024 nomination and that looming indictment.
The return to the seemingly bottomless pit of Trump, who controversially hosted SNL in the midst of the 2016 campaign, wasnt exactly the most original approach the show could have taken tonight but it was a tried and true tactic that certainly did not seem tired.
Taking the dangerous and absurd turns of Trumpland up a notch, SNL also brought out Emily Kohrs, as played by cast member Chloe Fineman.
If you missed her media tour this week, the chatty Kohrs in the foreperson of the special grand jury looking into Trumps efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia. Korhs nudge nudge, wink wink interviews on closed-doors deliberations may threaten the case itself. In real life, Trump called the Georgia grand jury a Kangaroo court and mocked Kohrs herself.
On SNL, the mock Trump said: Can you believe that? They almost had me and then this little horse girl comes in and saves the day. Thank you Emily.
Back for the first time since February 4, tonights SNL sees host Woody Harrelson joining the Five-Timer Club. Coming off hosting stints as far back as the Cheers days of 1989 (followed by 1992, 2014 and 2019), White House Plumbers star Harrelson also popped into SNL back in the early days of the 2020 presidential campaign as then-candidate Joe Biden. In what likely no coincidence, tonight is also the fifth time Jack White has rocked 30 Rockefeller Plazas studio 8Has SNLs musical guest.
Next week, Saturday Night Live will see Kansas City Chief tight end and Super Bowl champ Travis Kelce in his hosting debut, with Kelsea Ballerini as musical guest. On March 11, the show will have Wednesday star Jenna Ortega fronting SNL with The 1975 as musical act.
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Donald Trumps Train Wreck Appearance In Polluted East ...
Donald Trump recently reminded his supporters that he is suing the Pulitzer Prize Board for rewarding The New York Times and The Washington Post for their coverage of Russian election interference, with the validity of the suit questioned by a legal expert.
Trump filed a suit for defamation in December against the board for jointly awarding the two newspapers the prestigious National Reporting Pulitzer Prize award in 2018 for their coverage of alleged Russian collusion in the 2016 election.
The suit, filed in a court in Okeechobee County, Florida, describes how the "Russian collusion hoax"allegations that Trump's campaign team worked with Moscow to win the 2016 electionhad been "fully and emphatically debunked" numerous times.
"A large swath of Americans had a tremendous misunderstanding of the truth at the time the Times' and the Post's propagation of the Russia Collusion Hoax dominated the media," the complaint states. "Remarkably, they were rewarded for lying to the American public."
Trump is demanding in the suit that the 2018 Pulitzer prizes be rescinded and took issue with a July 2022 statement from the board in which it defended its decision and confirmed The New York Times' and The Washington Post's prizes will still stand.
The former president said the statement was released with "knowledge or reckless disregard for its falsity" and claimed board members "knew that the Russia Collusion Hoax had been thoroughly discredited numerous times by exhaustive, credible, official investigations, contradicting the 'deeply sourced, relentlessly reported' awarded articles."
In a post on Truth Social on Monday, Trump again mentioned how he is suing the Pulitzer Board for rewarding the newspapers for their Russiagate coverage while citing a recent lengthy and critical report from the Columbia Journalism Review regarding the amount of media coverage the allegations received at the time.
"The Pulitzer Board should have long ago rescinded awards given to the Washington Compost (known to some as the Washington Post) & the Failing NY Times for their fake stories on the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax," Trump wrote.
"However, Pulitzer refuses to do the right thing! The Hoax has now been further exposed by the devastating, irrefutable piece in the Columbia Journalism Review, and Pulitzer has no comment. I am suing the Pulitzer Board to set the record straight and continue fighting for TRUTH in America!"
Speaking to Newsweek, entertainment and corporate law attorney Tre Lovell noted that there are "several problems" with the suit.
Lovell said that even the merits of the suit are "very questionable" and that Trump may just be filing the suit as part of his efforts to denounce the Russian investigation in any way possible.
"The Pulitzer Prize Board didn't publish these articles, but has simply given an award which amounts to commentary, analysis and opinion as to whether or not the board felt there was good reporting," Lovell told Newsweek. "The premise of holding awards organizations responsible to warrant or guarantee the actions of those to which they grant an award is the start of an extremely slippery slope."
Others issues include that in order to bring a claim of defamation, a statement of fact must be made. In this case, the Pulitzer's decision to give out an award is "difficult to be construed" as a statement and instead falls more in the form of opinion.
Lovell said that even if a statement is inaccurate, it may not necessarily be liable if the underlying facts are provided with the statement.
"For example, a person can say 'Jack is a criminal' and that's a statement of fact. But if they say, 'Jack is a criminal because I read he was arrested for stealing something and police found this evidence,' then even if the person who expressed their opinion in that way is wrong, they have provided all the underlying facts so the public can make their own judgment about it," he said.
"Thus, no liability. In Trump's case, the award is based on articles and news reporting that people can read themselves and come to their own conclusions."
Trump would also need to prove that the board acted in "reckless disregard of its truth" by handing out the 2018 awards for reporting on the Russian collusion allegations.
As the board hired independent reviewers to go through articles and find anything that discredited the reporting, the Pulizters formed "legitimate and reasonable beliefs in the veracity of the statements, further removing themselves from the zone of liability," Lovell said.
In January, Florida District Court Judge Donald Middlebrooks sanctioned Trump and his lawyer Alina Habba for filing a series of "frivolous" 2016 election lawsuits alleging Hillary Clinton and the FBI conspired to work together to accuse Trump's campaign team of colluding with Russia in order to hinder his chances of victory.
In his ruling, Middlebrooks cited Trump's Pulitzer defamation lawsuit as one of several examples of the former president's "pattern of misusing the courts to serve political purposes."
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Donald Trump's "very questionable" lawsuit torn apart by attorney