Given the tumult in the Middle East, it makes sense that the first foreign tour of President Donald Trump’s second term would be to the region. The situation in Gaza is dire: Israel plans to “conquer” the territory and displace millions of Palestinians, who are facing famine and renewed military bombardment. The Trump administration may have reached a ceasefire with Houthi rebels in Yemen, who allegedly have promised to stop attacking U.S. ships in the Red Sea, but Israel is still bombing the Iran-backed militia. And the administration is negotiating with Iran itself about the fate of its nuclear program. Trump has sounded an optimistic note about those talks, but should they fail, he has made it clear that the United States could bomb Iranian facilities and possibly trigger a regional war.
But Trump isn’t visiting the Middle East to push for peace or really to do much diplomacy at all. Instead, his visit to the Persian Gulf is, one Arab official told Axios, all about “business, business and business.” Yes, Trump is seeking investment in America: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who ordered the murder of U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi during the president’s first term, has already pledged $600 billion. But one increasingly gets the sense that it’s not America’s business that Trump is really there for: It’s his family businesses. This swing through three Gulf states, which kicked off on Monday, is the clearest and most damning instance yet of his approach to governance in his second term, where official business and personal business are fully intertwined.
Trump’s trip was tainted by massive, historic corruption even before it began, when it was revealed that he would accept a “palace in the sky”—a luxury Boeing 747-8 worth $400 million—from Qatar, which he plans on using as Air Force One. “So the fact that the Defense Department is getting a GIFT, FREE OF CHARGE, of a 747 aircraft to replace the 40 year old Air Force One, temporarily, in a very public and transparent transaction, so bothers the Crooked Democrats that they insist we pay, TOP DOLLAR, for the plane,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “The Dems are World Class Losers!!!” But the proposed gift was criticized not only by Democrats but also by Republicans, including Senator Rand Paul, podcaster Ben Shapiro, and far-right loon Laura Loomer. Plus, the Defense Department isn’t really getting the gift: Trump has indicated he plans on transferring the jet to his presidential library foundation at the end of his term, which likely means he can keep using it after he leaves office.
There are no indications that the jet—which Qatari officials have said has not been officially gifted—is part of an explicit quid pro quo. That hardly matters, though. Qatar is buying favor with the president in an act of deep and brazen corruption. Trump wants to be treated as a king, and Qatar is playing ball. Will Qatar be rewarded by favorable treatment by the U.S. government for as long as Trump is president? Of course it will. This is exactly how Trump has always wanted to govern—via personal relationships, in which foreign leaders and business magnates grovel before him. This is exactly how he’s governing during his second term.
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