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Your Guide to What Trump’s Second Season Means Washington, Business and World
What can you give to someone who already has it all? Normal treatments are of sentimental value. In the case of Donald Trump, Qatar has discovered the perfect blend. This is a $400 million jumbo jet that he showed his nostalgia in advance. Trump inspected the plane at Palm Beach Airport a few weeks after he was sworn in. Ever since he covered the equipment on the gold plated aircraft, he associates the next Air Force with the Qatar ruling family. Or they have to want.
In reality, Trump’s gratitude has a limited shelf life. Ask Mark Zuckerberg of Meta. A million dollar gift to Trump’s inauguration and $25 million to settle a useless honour-loss lawsuit have not saved his company from a major threatened fine. But in Trump, never say it. Perhaps Zuckerberg will find his own sentimental emoluments to secure meta relief from Trump’s anti-trust lawyers.
It is no coincidence that Trump’s first overseas trip was to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf kingdoms. Like his first term (his recent trip to Rome to Rome was clearly a short term notice). The distinction between public and private means little to Saud’s home. Their country was literally named after them. At least in theory, Washington was on the other side of the Riyadh spectrum due to US ethics laws against conflicts of interest. In fact, federal ethical rules are now decorative.
Former officials who had to declare a gift of over a few hundred dollars will be surprised to hear that Trump’s lawyers have determined that the $400 million lawyer has not violated the emoluments clause of the US Constitution. The same applies to MemoCoin$Trump issued by Trump a few days before Trump was sworn in. The top 220 investors in Trump’s purely speculative offering will be attending a private dinner with him next week. That also clearly gives a legal convened.
Some people play this game more subtle than others. Few people are better than the Gulf royals. This month, the Abu Dhabi investment fund promoted $2 billion worth of Stablecoin through World Liberty Financial, the Trump family’s majority crypto company. The name is intentionally packed. On the other side of the deal is a crypto exchange that recorded a $4.3 billion penalty for money laundering during Joe Biden’s presidency.
Since then, Trump has suspended Biden’s restrictions on semiconductor exports to groups of countries, including the United Arab Emirates. The United Arab Emirates has also pledged to invest 1.4 tonnes in the United States over the next decade. Neither Brussels nor Ottawa could begin to match that.
Should Central America study the content of Trump’s deals, and maybe there’s something to say? Most alarms since January have focused specifically on the ghost of Trump’s authoritarianism over deportation and freedom of speech. But as author Anne Applebaum persuasively argued, the dictatorial twins are plagiarism. In the latter, Trump appears to have made even more progress. Congress is not pretending to provide oversight on these conflicts of interest. Perhaps Capitol Hill is paralyzed by the range of choices.
They also raise questions about the motivation behind Trump’s foreign policy, particularly with Qatar. The small Gulf Kingdom has done a huge amount to support Hamas by pouring tens of millions of dollars into Gaza. He also plays the host of a Palestinian extremist group. But the Trump family is raising their eyes in commercial dealings with them.
In April this year, Trump’s organization signed a contract with Qatar, building a luxury brand Trump villa and an 18-hole golf course. Qatar is also an investor in Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner’s investment fund, and is set to announce at least $200 billion in US investments this week. While large chunks of heading numbers like this may turn out to be a non-alienable system like Canada, they cannot work this way. This brings great benefits to non-democracy in negotiations with Trump.
Such a deal is also difficult to reconcile with Trump’s promise of “America First.” If Qatar gets better with a free jumbo jet, Trump’s so-called ski palace sacrifices Boeing. How will Trump’s impending Gulf Tower and Resort rash help America’s economic or diplomatic benefits? It is open to debate. But the financial boost for Trump and his family is something everyone can see. The doubt is that the US president’s true agenda is the first Trump. The rest is in the palm of your hand.
edward.luce@ft.com
Edward Ruth’s book “Zbig: The Life of Zbigniew Brzezinski, Prophet of the Great American Power” is now available
