Eli Lake, Columnist

With Trump, Bill Clinton Deja Vu

They're not the same, but they are too alike.

April 18, 2018 at 9:00 AM UTC

Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI.

Too much in common.
Photographer: Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images

Provide news feedback or report an error

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

Watching Donald Trump's presidency lunge and wobble from scandal to crisis, a Bill Clinton deja vu sets in. We've been here before. The independent prosecutors. Corruption probes that turn up adultery. The lies and the pardons. The cover-ups and the pay offs.

Friday's missile strikes in Syria encapsulate the Trump-Clinton parallel universe. HBO host Bill Maher called it "Operation Desert Stormy," suggesting the military operation was meant to distract from the FBI raid of Michael Cohen's office, home and hotel room. Cohen is alleged to have paid for the silence of Stormy Daniels, the former pornographic performer who says she had a steamy evening with Trump back in 2006.