A Trump Family Tradition

Gifts of money

Who can $400 million buy you?

Donald has always been for sale, and he demonstrated during his first term that if he were allowed to remain in power, he would eventually strip America and sell it for its parts. Now he’s showing us the lengths to which he’s willing to go to do this.

As we know, Donald is the most easily manipulable person on the planet. He’s also the greediest. Any leader of a foreign country who wants something from him is very aware of these things which is why the royal family of Qatar just “gifted” Donald a Boeing 747, under the guise of claiming it was for the United States government.

As NBC News reported:

The 747 would be used as his new Air Force One. Aviation experts say the plane has a face value of about $400 million. And sources tell NBC News that the plane would be transferred to the Trump Presidential Library Foundation once he ends his second term, which of course raises several ethical questions. Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer compared the deal to bribery.

Donald’s presidential library foundation, like much else connected to him, is a swamp of corruption. The idea that the plane would be “transferred” to it exposes the bribe right away. The plane is not going to be on display in the library parking lot; it’s going to be for Donald's personal use. If it really were meant to be a gift to the United States government it would, of course, remain the property of the United States government and be available to future administrations. In that case, it wouldn’t be much of a bribe.

The pushback against this blatantly obvious scheme was immediate, and Donald took to his failing social media site to attack anybody who was willing to call out the corruption:

SO THE FACT THAT THE DEFENSE DEPARTMENT IS GETTING A GIFT FREE OF CHARGE SO BOTHERS THE CROOKED DEMOCRATS THAT THEY INSIST WE PAID TOP DOLLAR FOR THE PLANE. THE DEMS ARE WORLD CLASS LOSERS.

At a press conference today, Donald became even more defensive:

I could be a stupid person and say 'Oh no, we don't want a free plane. We give free things out. We'll take one too.' I could be a stupid person and say 'No, we don't want a free very expensive airplane.' A lot of people are stupid.

I’ve said this many times—it is a dangerous thing to put into a position of power somebody who cares about money and nothing else. Thanks to my grandfather, money, in my family, was the only currency, which is to say that money was not only more important than everything else—love, kindness, affection—it stood in for everything else.

You could gauge your worth, literal and metaphorical, by how much you were worth financially. You could also gauge your worth by how much was given to you—or was not given to you, as the case may be.

My grandmother had her own issues. At one point she and I were very close. One day she and I were sitting in the kitchen during a visit she gave me some advice for the first time in my life. I don’t remember the context of the conversation, but she said, “Mary, never reject a gift of money.” All of which is to say, Donald comes by his bizarre attitude toward money honestly.

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Regardless of what Donald thinks about the stupidity of rejecting a valuable gift, it’s not up to him in this case. Article 1, Section 9, Clause 8 of the Constitution says the following:

No person holding any office shall, without the consent of Congress, accept any present, emolument, office, or title from any king, prince, or foreign state.

The Emoluments Clause exists for exactly the Qatari situation and, quite frankly, it exists for exactly the kind of unscrupulous “leader” Donald Trump is.

Foreign governments cannot give lavish gifts to U.S. officials unless Congress signs off—there is no ambiguity here. We do not know what the Qatari royal family wants from this person in exchange for their obscenely lavish gift, just as we do not know what Donald will do in return for it.

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Everybody in the Trump regime is onboard with making it seem as if this illegal, unconstitutional transaction is above board.

When confronted with the fact that Donald has so blatantly been leveraging the power of the presidency to accrue wealth for himself: White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt had this to say:

I think it's frankly ridiculous that anyone in this room would even suggest that [Donald] is doing anything for his own benefit. He left a life of luxury and a life of running a very successful real estate empire for public service—not just once but twice—and again, the American public reelected him back to this White House because they trust he acts in the best interest of our country and putting the American public first…. That is not what President Trump does. And this White House holds ourselves to the highest of ethical standards.

Leavitt does nothing but spread disinformation and propaganda and her sole purpose is to provide cover for the most corrupt administration in American history. Her statement is absurd for many reasons, but most pointedly because Donald Trump has amassed more wealth during his time in office than he ever had as a private citizen.

I want to review how this will play out:

• Qatar donates the plane to the Pentagon.

• At U.S. taxpayer expense, the plane will need to be cleared of any devices that could be used to spy on the plane's occupants.

• In order to meet the command and control specifications of Air Force One, the plane will have to be upgraded also at taxpayer expense—and the cost will be enormous. Because Air Force One is not simply a mode of transportation to get the president of the United States from point A to point B, it is essentially a mobile SCIF with extraordinary defensive capabilities.

• After Donald leaves office, the plane gets transferred to his library fund, which he controls, giving him free rein to use it as he sees fit. Who else will be able to use this it? Nobody. Because it will to all intents and purposes belong to him, not the next administration.

This loophole bypasses campaign finance laws, public transparency, and basic ethics because the so-called gift to the government is de facto a bribe.

To what degree does the fact that this country’s president is obviously beholden to a foreign entity undermine our national security? How much does this corrupt arrangement impoverish us—literally and figuratively—as a people.

As I mentioned, the Emoluments Clause can be enforced. Gifts that are given or offered to any government official have to be approved by Congress. That means that the Republicans, who control both the Senate and the House of Representatives, have the power to put a stop to this. I would ask them—finally, at long last—that they do their jobs.