Qatar gave Trump a $400 million aircraft that’s being retrofitted (at a cost of another $400 million) into a replacement for Air Force One; when Trump leaves office, the aircraft will transfer to Trump’s presidential library. If these twin agreements don’t violate the foreign emoluments clause (which reads, “No Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State”), then it’s hard to imagine what does. It’s much the same with Trump’s various crypto scams, which two months ago prompted Harvard political scientist Steven Levitsky to tell The Guardian, “I have never seen such open corruption in any modern government anywhere.” By comparison, we have seen violent crime before in the District, back in the 1990s, when the joke was that “D.C.” stood for “Dodge City.” I was here.
Author: Timothy Noah
Published at: 2025-08-11 21:27:57
Still want to read the full version? Full article
