@Strandjunker #RepublicansCannotRead
#RepublicansHaveNeverReadTheConstitution
#RepublicansAreNotFiscalConservatives
#RepublicansAreHypocrites
#EmolumentsClause
#RepublicansAreTraitors
#RepublicansAreLiars
#RepublicansHatePeople
#RepublicansAreReallyReallyReallyStupid

@Nonilex

Let's take a deep, cleansing breath and call this #LuxuryJet from #Qatar exactly what it is:

#Baksheesh

"Baksheesh (from Persian: بخشش bakhshesh[1]) ... and certain forms of political corruption and bribery in the Middle East and South Asia. "

These are Arabians

They know exactly who #Trump is

They know exactly what they are doing

They know exactly what they're going to get -- for starters

Trump does not

Trump gets played for the fool he is -- once again

Here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baksheesh

#Trump is now talking about the new $400 million plane that #Qatar is just gifting him.

He starts off by complaining that the #ExecutiveOrder he signed for a new plane in January hasn’t resulted in anything.

The aggressive effort by #Trump & his partners to promote the dinner has also drawn scrutiny from former #securities regulators, who assert that Trump may be violating federal securities laws. However, he would almost certainly not be targeted for investigation, now that his admin has curtailed #crypto enforcement efforts at both the #SEC & the #DOJ.

#Trading records examined by NYT show that a flurry of purchases of the $TRUMP token started the day before the coin’s backers disclosed the contest. Information had leaked about the upcoming promotion, allowing certain parties to make early bets that the market price was about to jump, the records suggest.

…But the blitz of profit-seeking by #Trump & his family is also provoking a backlash.

Last week, it helped derail a major piece of #crypto legislation pending in #Congress, as the sale prompted objections from crypto industry executives & lawmakers, including *some* #Republicans.

“It does give me pause because it complicates our work here,” Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) said…. “The optics are challenging.” [just the optics?]

The contest has pushed up the #memecoin’s trading price, adding billions of dollars, at least on paper, to the value of a $TRUMP stash controlled by the #Trump family & its business partners. And in a matter of weeks, the Trumps & their partners have reeled in more than $1.3 million in fees, taking a cut every time the coins changed hands, according to Chainalysis, a #crypto data firm.

Since the announcement, #crypto investors around the world have raced to expand their holdings of $TRUMP — a digital currency called a #memecoin, which is typically treated more as a novelty investment than an actual currency.

Certain buyers, in interviews & statements, have said they bought the coins or entered the dinner contest with the intention of securing an action by #Trump to affect United States #policy.

So what level of "draining the swamp" are we on when the fascist President of the United States accepts a $400M airplane from the government of Qatar through legally dubious means, and Trump's lawyers, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Defense shout "this is totally legal, nothing to see here" despite the fact that any rando paying attention can see this is blatantly illegal and openly corrupt?

https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-air-force-one

Critics Condemn Trump Plan to Accept Lux Plane From Qatar as 'Comically Corrupt'

"Ahead of Trump's trip to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, sources told ABC that the administration "is preparing to accept a super luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet from the royal family of Qatar—a gift that is to be available for use by... Trump as the new Air Force One until shortly before he leaves office, at which time ownership of the plane will be transferred to the Trump presidential library foundation."

The unnamed sources also explained that "lawyers for the White House counsel's office and the Department of Justice drafted an analysis for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth concluding that is legal for the Department of Defense to accept the aircraft as a gift and later turn it over to the Trump library, and that it does not violate laws against bribery or the Constitution's prohibition (the emoluments clause) of any U.S. government official accepting gifts 'from any king, prince, or foreign state.'"

Liberal observers still reeling from the 2016 election will no doubt find it bitterly ironic that Trump at points campaigned on sketchy donations to the Clinton Foundation from Qatar during that race, but the bigger issue here is that American law forbids the President accepting bribes from foreign governments for a reason. The idea that this isn't the Qatari government gifting Trump a $400M airplane to curry favor ahead of diplomatic negotiations stretches credulity, and is in no way obscured by the legal fuckery the regime is trying to accomplish here through the use of Trump's presidential library foundation. This is a bribe, and it's a direct violation of everyone's favorite meaningless law from the first Trump president, the emoluments clause.

Of course, given that Trump spent his first four years in office using his real estate and hotel empire to repeatedly violate the emoluments clause, and he's already inventing new ways to openly receive bribes through cryptocurrency scams that nobody has made any effort to punish him for, I think it's a pretty safe bet he'll get away with this one too. The reality is that the American political and legal systems aren't actually built to stop a corrupt president, or hold rich men accountable for their criminal activities in any way; nor is a US society that worships at the altar of capital and proclaims a billionaire ruling class "masters of the universe" with a *right* to commodify every aspect of our daily existence to further capitalist extraction. In a better society, one that hasn't already contorted every aspect of the law to favor wealth and power, it's entirely possible that crass corruption like this would ultimately topple the Trump regime, but we're talking about a guy who has skated by largely unaffected by dozens and dozens of demonstrable crimes he's committed. If Trump's open fraud, slander, corruption, sexual violence, violations of the Espionage Act, and literal attempts to overturn the 2020 election through an elaborate coup plot didn't cost him anything on his way to a second presidency, why would a little thing like accepting a $400M bribe while shouting "how's my ass taste" from the tarmac stop him now?

It will fulfill #Trump’s desire for a new #AirForceOne, after repeated delays involving a government contract to Boeing for 2 new jets to serve that purpose.

Trump toured #Qatar’s 747, which is just over a decade old, while it was parked at the Palm Beach International Airport in February. NYT reported then that the jet was being considered as a possible new Air Force One.

Sold new, a commercial Boeing 747-800 costs ~$400M.
#Trump’s own private plane is an older 757 jet that first flew in the early 1990s & was then used by the #Microsoft co-founder #PaulAllen. Trump bought it in 2011. The Qatari jet would give him a substantially newer plane for his own use.

The plan is expected to be announced in the coming days, as Trump makes the first extended foreign trip of his presidency to 3 nations in the #MiddleEast, including #Qatar.

Once more flagrantly violating the #law:

British envoy to the #US #PeterMandelson then offered #Trump a special price for a #RollsRoyce:

"Mr. President, I wonder whether you'd like to buy…I would be happy to suggest a discount. Obviously, a very modest discount," he said.

Trump resonded: "You know, the last time that happened, I ended up buying a Tesla," referring to his #promotion of #ElonMusk's car on the WH lawn.

#EmolumentsClause
#economy #trade #tariffs #recession #geopolitics #UK

#Trump, in recent days, was doing his part as well to help drive business to the family.

He attended a fund-raising event at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida this past weekend. That makes his 10th visit to the club since he returned to the White House in January, with many of the weekend visits featuring political gatherings that #pay bills to his family.

Donald Trump Jr’s next stop was #Serbia, where the #Trump family is planning a new hotel on land owned by the #government there. He met w/ President #AleksandarVucic, whose admin approved the hotel project, which also includes Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, as the developer. “No one has ever said that we are inhospitable: We prepared this pig for Donald Jr Trump,” Vucic boasted on his FB page, about his meal w/Trump.

On a crypto conference panel in #Dubai, #EricTrump sat next to Zach #Witkoff, one of the founders of the #Trump family #crypto firm, #WorldLibertyFinancial, who announced that a VC firm backed by the #government of #AbuDhabi would invest $2 billion using a form of digital currency offered by World Liberty. This deal alone could generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for the Trump family & its partners.

This is 1 of 6 #RealEstate projects now planned in the #MiddleEast, sponsored by #DarGlobal, the international subsidiary of a #Saudi-based real estate firm with close ties to the #SaudiRoyalFamily. The other projects are in #SaudiArabia, #Oman & #Dubai.

“They always arrive at the word ‘yes,’ which is a beautiful thing,”Eric #Trump said while in Dubai this past wk, saying that it took only a month to get the required real estate permits from the govt there…

In some cases, the #Trump-family announcements over the past week have involved #ForeignGovernments, including those of #Qatar & the #UAE.

#EricTrump flew to #Doha, the capital of the tiny #MiddleEast nation of Qatar, on Wednesday as a govt official there signed a deal with a #Saudi-based #RealEstate company to build a new Trump golf course & luxury villa complex, a partnership & will bring millions of dollars in branding & mgmt fees to the Trump family.