Along with much of the rest of the U.S., I am anxious to learn the details of the “progress” in reaching a “deal” with China. The possibility of a world trade war continues to worry me. I have no confidence in the man at the top and wonder if there is a nefarious alternative agenda at play.
And it gets worse.
President Donald Trump takes breaks from his jihad of retribution against his perceived enemies to enrich himself and his family. The Trumps are heavy into the cryptocurrency market and will be successful beyond imagination. They have the advantage that nobody else in the crypto world has: They control the regulators. They also have removed the watchdogs that might have flagged questionable activity. And even if blatant crimes were exposed, you can count on Pam Bondi to exercise her prosecutorial discretion to look the other way.
All this looks rotten to me. But I haven’t seen our man in Washington, Andy “Handgun” Harris, mutter a peep about it. He’s too busy figuring out how to help secure passage of Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” the one that will raise the national debt and formalize the dismemberment of the federal government.
Andy, either you have abandoned your principles, which were not a heavy burden as exemplified by things like keeping term-limit promises, or you never had any.
What’s an anesthesiologist doing in Congress anyway? Was putting people to sleep too boring?
But I digress. Last week, President Trump may have gone a step too far. It’s the Qatari 747 “Flying Palace” that Trump says the Qataris want to give him. The airplane, worth somewhere around $400 million according to press reports, would be given to the U.S. government for Trump’s use, but only temporarily. Once Trump leaves office, the plane would become the property of the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Fund.
That stinks. Trump, and his family could be flying around in the palace in the sky for a decade or two, never once remembering to thank the Qatari government for their gift of the United States Trump.
On Monday morning, I read that even the MAGA faithful were “furious” about Trump engaging in a world-class grift, something too outrageous to justify.
Will MAGA’s anger last? Probably not. After all, the MAGA crowd is comfortable with all the other Trump grift, okay with Trump’s vivisection of the federal government, okay with the retribution and extortion against law firms, universities, and non-profits. And now, Donald Trump is stepping forward to tell us why accepting a $400 million gift from Qatar is okay.
Trump wrote on Monday: “So the fact that the Defense Department is getting a GIFT, FREE OF CHARGE, of a 747 aircraft to replace the 40 year old Air Force One, temporarily, in a very public and transparent transaction, so bothers the Crooked Democrats that they insist we pay, TOP DOLLAR, for the plane. Anybody can do that! The Dems are World Class Losers!!! MAGA.”
After I read Trump’s social media post, I felt like I had eaten one of the rotten crabs. I wanted to throw up.
The outcries against Trump accepting a deferred gift of a “flying palace” may crash “the deal.” Let’s hope it does. America should not need to solicit “gifts” from foreign governments to transport our president to and from his golf properties.
And think of the floodgate that the U.S. accepting the 747 might open. Would Trump throw Ukraine under the bus for a low-cost loan on one of his real estate properties? My guess is that Russia would seize an opportunity to win its war in Ukraine for a billion dollars.
President Trump has hit a new low. Even if you applaud his trade war, want as many undocumented migrants out of the country (call them “illegals” if you like, but try not to forget they are human beings), and think ending federal medical research, support for the arts and humanities, and trying to close Harvard University, okay, ponder whether the 747 and the rest of the grift are okay with you. If your answer is yes, buy yourself some $Trump meme coins, crack open a beer, and feast on some rotten crab.
J.E. Dean writes on politics, government but, too frequently, on President Trump. A former counsel on Capitol Hill and public affairs consultant, Dean also writes for Dean’s Issues & Insights on Substack.
