Donald Trump is in his pomp. On 14 June, his 79th birthday, he will be holding a colossal military parade in Washington with whizz-bang warplanes, tanks and thousands of soldiers thought to cost upwards of $25 million, which will feed his vanity.
His excuse is it’s the US Army’s 250th birthday, the first of many such celebrations of the founding of America in 1776, conveniently on his watch.
Having longed for decades to win the respect of the rich and powerful, the President has gilded potentates and billionaires at his feet – or thinks he does. His cabinet meetings are exercises in servility. The Maga faithful are with him, for now. But the emperor’s new clothes are fraying.
Trump’s brazenness is part of his authenticity. Because he is transparently transactional, he regards himself as incorruptible. Because he can sign executive orders at will, he believes he is irresistible. Contrary to his carefully curated self-image, however, he is not all-powerful.
Trump faces triple jeopardy on the economy, foreign policy and alleged corruption. Although his voters haven’t lost patience, they are feeling bruised.
For starters, the tariff wars aren’t over. As John David Rainey, chief financial officer of Walmart, the superstore giant, warned this week on CNBC’s business news channel: “We’ve not seen a period where you’ve had prices go up this high, this quickly. We’re well equipped and experienced in dealing with price increases that are going up two or three per cent, but not 30 per cent.”
Next, Qatar-a-Lago has caused a crack in the previously impregnable Maga coalition. The optics of accepting the offer of a $400 million presidential plane from a state sponsor of Hamas, earmarked for Trump’s personal use in a few short years, have been spectacularly bad.
Laura Loomer, the Trump tricoteuse who has been enthusiastically guillotining suspected non-Maga White House officials, recycled an image comparing Qatar’s gift of a plane to a Trojan horse stuffed with jihadis.
Ben Shapiro, the Maga podcaster behind the Daily Wire media empire, described the Qatari plane deal as “skeezy” and had equally harsh words for Trump’s crypto-profiteering.
“This is not in fact draining the swamp,” he griped. “If we switched the names to Hunter Biden and Joe Biden, we’d all be freaking out on the right.”
Everybody’s sticking their fingers in the money-pot. The Trump boys, Eric and Don Jr, have plans for a Trump Tower in Dubai, a deluxe golf course in Qatar and real estate ventures in Saudi Arabia, plus a private members’ club in Washington that will cost members $500,000 a year to hobnob with administration officials.
Then there’s Melania, who has spent only 14 days at the White House since the inauguration, according to the New York Times, but still managed to launch her own crypto coin. The Financial Times revealed that a lucky few traders received a $100 million windfall in the minutes before the launch of the First Lady’s meme coin.
The Department of Homeland Security now thinks its boss, Kristi Noem, deserves her own new $50 million plane, while axed staff at federal agencies are reeling from Elon Musk’s random job cuts and wondering how to pay their bills. Pam Bondi, the attorney general, tasked with upholding the law, not only used to advise the Qataris but sold over $1 million in Trump Media shares on “Liberation Day” – when the President launched his tariff wars. Most Americans are still living with the consequences of the markets whipsawing.
Lifting sanctions on Syria was one of Trump’s better moves on his Middle Eastern tour. It was bold to describe President Ahmad al-Sharaa, as a “young, attractive guy. Tough guy. Strong past. Very strong past. Fighter,” given the latter’s former links to Islamic extremists.
But Trump’s diplomatic skills are being tested to the limit over Ukraine. The peace talks in Turkey appear to be a bust, because he keeps on falling for Russian delaying tactics.
“Nothing’s going to happen until Putin and I get together,” Trump blustered to reporters on Air Force One, while the war grinds on and his Russian friend continues to cock a snook at him. “We’re going to have to get it solved because too many people are dying,” he added, as if Russian President Vladimir Putin was not ordering the killing.
By the time of the Washington parade, Trump is going to need some solid victories to boast about. If not, he’ll be a Potemkin president, with nothing behind the hollow facade of “greatness”.
Sarah Baxter is director of the Marie Colvin Center for International Reporting
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