|
 |
🛫 ☁️ 🛬 With corporate outlets obeying in advance, supporting independent political media is more important right now than ever. PN is possible thanks to paid subscribers. If you aren’t one already, please click the button below to sign up and support our work. 🛫 ☁️ 🛬
A note from Aaron: Tune in this afternoon (May 16) at 2pm eastern (1 central) for my weekly Substack Live with David Nir of The Downballot. Our special guest this week is Matthew Gertz of Media Matters for America. We’ll discuss the pipeline between the Trump White House and Fox News, the broader state of cable news, and much more. Click here to sign up ahead of time and please sign up for a paid subscription if you’d like to ask us questions live.
Donald Trump devised yet another way to be corrupt this week when he announced that Qatar’s royal family is gifting him a $400 million, tricked-out 747 Boeing jet he described as a “palace in the sky.”
Trump boasted on social media that he’d receive the jet, which he envisions as a temporary Air Force One replacement, “FREE OF CHARGE.”
"It's a great gesture from Qatar,” Trump told reporters. “I appreciate it very much. I would never be one to turn down that kind of an offer."
So, a foreign government made the president an offer he couldn’t refuse, even if the the emoluments clause of the Constitution says he must:
No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.
Unlike Trump, past presidents haven’t treated this part of the Constitution as a mere suggestion. George W. Bush, for instance, didn’t even keep a puppy given to him by Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov.
Qatari officials have claimed that reports describing the jet as an outright gift are “inaccurate.” It’s unclear if that’s just cover for a brazen bribe, but it’s important to put this spectacle in the larger context of Trump’s attacks on democratic norms.
 |
|
Qatar, which has helped fund Hamas, has a lot to gain from making the skies friendlier for Trump. The State Department approved a $2 billion arms sale to Qatar just this March, a marked shift in policy for the US. Qatar hosts 13,000 U.S. troops at Al-Udeid Air Base, which is the largest US military facility in the Middle East, and benefits diplomatically from a longterm US presence in the country.
Trump himself all but said the quiet “pro quo” part out loud when he told reporters that Qatar’s grand gesture is because the US “kept them safe.”
“If it wasn’t for us,” he added, “they probably wouldn’t exist right now.”
That’s Trump’s Doctrine in action — we’ll keep you safe, for the right price.
A note from Aaron: Working with brilliant contributors like Stephen takes resources. If you aren’t already a paid subscriber, please sign up to support our work.
Defending the indefensible
When an ABC News reporter asked Trump about accepting Qatar&