President Trump's acceptance of a luxury plane from the Qatari royal family isn’t just ethically dubious — it’s just the kind of on-the-nose corruption that would have once felt too lazy for satire.
That is, until it became real life. Now we all nod along as if “Air Force One, sponsored by Qatar” were not a foreboding sign for the American experiment.
Let us start with the obvious: security. We are supposed to believe that it’s a great idea to let a foreign government hand-deliver the commander-in-chief’s flying fortress. And not just any foreign government, but one with a very shaky record on press freedom, and a long-time funder of Hamas.What could possibly go wrong? Spying? Sabotage? Chai milk in the minibar? None of it is anything a red-blooded American should want.
Trump himself once called Qatar “a funder of terrorism at a very high level.” That was back when he still vaguely remembered that part of being president meant occasionally pretending to care about national security. Fast forward a few years, and Qatar has become his preferred travel agency.
But the real kicker — which should make every alarm bell scream — is what this looks like to anyone with half a brain: a bribe. A flashy, gold-plated, fully-reclining, Foreign Emoluments Clause-shredding inducement.
The problem isn’t just this one act of influence-peddling, but what it signals. If this flies (pun intended), it tells every foreign power on earth that the Bank of Trump is open for business. Today, it’s Qatar handing over a jet; tomorrow, it’s some competing oil prince offering a private island and naming rights to the State Department.
Of course, accusing Trump of cashing-in on his presidency is like accusing a raccoon of raiding the trash: obviously true, mildly revolting and somehow no longer newsworthy. Because what’s more corrosive than the act itself is how utterly normalized it has become.
Once upon a time, corruption was something politicians desperately tried to hide. Now it’s done in public on Truth Social. In a few short years, we’ve gone from “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” to “Mr. Smith Is Monetizing Access with NFTs.”
This is the stuff the Founders actually worried about. Remember them? The powdered-wig crowd who obsessed over how republics collapse — not with a bang, but with a bribe. Alexander Hamilton warned about foreign corruption seeping into our institutions. George Mason flat-out warned, “If we do not provide against corruption, our government will soon be at an end.”
They weren’t being melodramatic — they were students of history. They knew how Rome fell: not due to one bad ruler, but through the slow, weary shrug of a public that stopped believing the rules applied to the powerful.
If Trump's actions do not comprise the appearance of impropriety, they sure play the part convincingly. The woman who cleared the deal, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, was once a lobbyist for Qatar.
Of course she was. It’s always like that now. Every blaring conflict of interest is shrugged off as coincidence. Every ethical breach is rebranded as the new normal.
Even the alleged justification — that the jet will eventually go into Trump’s presidential library (yes, the same Trump who once said he doesn’t read books) — feels like a punchline.
And assuming he doesn’t just slap a “Trump Force One” decal on the side of the plane and use it to commute between golf courses, it’s still a ludicrous arrangement. The taxpayers are still going to have to pay for a new Air Force One in a few years. We’re not saving money, we’re laundering influence.
Maybe Trump blinks on this one. He’s done it before. The tariffs, Ed Martin, any number of “bold” decisions he quietly backs away from when the headlines get too hot. Strategic retreat is part of his brand: take two steps toward kleptocracy, back off one and wait for some talking head to call it statesmanship.
But even if this particular scheme gets shelved, the message is out. The norm is tested. The ground is softened. Trump has shown once again that there’s no rule too sacred to break and no pocket too foreign to pick.
This hustle is just one of many. Trump is already cashing in through crypto scams, Chinese-made Bibles and Qatari-backed golf courses — a whole portfolio of influence dressed up as patriotism. Why endure bad press over a transparently corrupt flying palace when the entire presidency is already a timeshare?
This Qatari plane might never take off, but the message already has. The republic isn’t crashing tonight. It’s corroding, flight by flight, deal by deal, while half the country laughs and the other half shrugs.
Fasten your seat-belts and return your tray table to its full upright position. The American project is flying through turbulence of our own making.
And Trump? He’s just the guy who figured out how to charge for the ride.
Matt K. Lewis is a columnist, podcaster and author of the books “Too Dumb to Fail” and “Filthy Rich Politicians.”
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