Graphic by Rachel Carp.
Erik Prince is one of those names that when I see it in headlines I have to prepare myself for the worst possible scenario, and this past week has been no different. Prince has many titles. Founder of Blackwater, currently known as Academi, a mercenary company (the politically correct term is “privatized military company” or PMC) that killed 14 Iraqi civilians in 2007. Former president Donald Trump ally. Former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos’s brother. Billionaire (inherited). Oh, and father.
He returned to the public’s attention earlier this week when the United Nations accused him of violating an arms embargo in Libya. Libya fell victim to the world’s appetite for oil about a decade ago when the opposing National Transitional Council shot the country’s dictator, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. Today, the country is split in two western and eastern halves. Shortly after the split, the U.N. Security Council imposed an arms embargo. In April 2019, Prince proposed an $80 million mercenary operation primarily supplying aircrafts and 20 soldiers for the eastern Libyan leader Khalifa Haftar.
This is not the first time Prince has pitched a contract in Libya. In 2015, he approached the European Union about supplying a private military force to patrol Libyan borders for illegal migration. Neither of his proposals worked out, but his work relating to Trump’s campaign did.
Prince’s support for Trump ranged from thousands of dollars in donations to arranging meetings with a Russian banker and lying to Congress about it. Days after Prince pitched his operation to Haftar, Trump publicly supported the leader, reversing American policy. In 2017, Prince recruited former spies to infiltrate labor unions, tried to convince the White House and Pentagon to replace American troops with private contractors in Afghanistan and invited Project Veritas personnel to train under him as spies. The year after that, he tried to infiltrate Virginia Democrat Abigail Spanberger’s congressional campaign.
Forgive me for catastrophizing, then, when Trump established his Office of the Former President and announced plans to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference. It’s not at all uncommon for presidents to establish offices after leaving the White House. Former president Barack Obama has the Office of Barack and Michelle Obama and the Obama Foundation. There’s the Office of George W. Bush or George HW Bush and President Clinton’s the Clinton Foundation, as well. A president’s life after the White House is funded by taxpayers through the Former Presidents Act of 1958 which provides an allowance and office staff. My concern is Trump’s “quirk” with words. Why call it the Office of the Former President instead of the Office of Donald Trump? And why suggest his own political party to rival Republicans and Democrats?
If Charlottesville moved the goalposts for the Capitol riots to happen, then where are the goalposts now? Erik Prince is concerned with running a private military company but he also has a history of supporting Trump’s policies. Trump proved his favor with militant groups like the Oath Keepers and Three Percenters when they arrived at the Capitol in January. Members of Congress are already failing to condemn the insurrection. If Prince is willing to provide troops and aircraft to Khalifa Haftar, who else would he support if the time came?
