A Garish, Outlandish, Stunningly Corrupt Act
Trump wants Qatar to gift him a shiny new Air Force One because he thinks the Emoluments Clause is for suckers.
Happy China Trade Thaw Day to those who celebrate! The United States and China agreed overnight to suspend many of the tariffs put in place after Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day,” which had ground trade between the two nations to a virtual standstill. “The consensus from both delegations is that neither side wanted a decoupling,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said at a news conference in Geneva hours ago.
Although MAGA will doubtless spend today hooting about yet another Art of the Deal triumph, the announcement is in truth another obvious blink from the White House, as China has made no commitments to stop the trade practices that supposedly sparked Trump’s tariffs in the first place. Still, markets soared on the news that Trump was ready—at least for a little while—to stop holding a pillow over the face of global trade. Thank you, President Deals! Happy Monday.
Beware Princes Bearing Gifts
by William Kristol
I’m old enough to remember when this was a republic. A proud republic. We were proud to be different from the principalities and powers of the old world. We were confident of our superiority to the hereditary aristocracies and monarchies that had dominated political life everywhere on the globe, and that still did in many places.
In those older and simpler days we spoke of and even believed in republican virtue. And so we nodded along to passages like this, from Federalist No. 39:
The first question that offers itself is, whether the general form and aspect of the government be strictly republican. It is evident that no other form would be reconcilable with the genius of the people of America; with the fundamental principles of the Revolution; or with that honorable determination which animates every votary of freedom, to rest all our political experiments on the capacity of mankind for self-government.
We old republicans tended to take this “honorable determination” for granted. We also took for granted some of the provisions of the Constitution that followed from this principle. They seemed a little old-fashioned and quaint, but still meaningful—such as Article I, Section 9, Clause 8.
No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And 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.
How naïve we were back then.
Now, the president of the United States is boasting of receiving as a gift a luxury Boeing 747-8 plane from the Qatari royal family. The plane will be upgraded to serve not as the Air Force One but as his Air Force One, since it will only be available for use by the government of the United States during his time in office. It will then revert to him—well, nominally to his presidential library, but it will of course be totally at his disposal—after he leaves office.
This sure seems like a “present” or “emolument” to a person holding “an office of trust” from “a King, Prince, or foreign state.”
But not to worry. Attorney General Pam Bondi—once a registered lobbyist for Qatar, as it happens—has concluded that the transaction is permissible under U.S. law and the Constitution.
How nice that the Trump administration still pretends to maintain some façade of respect for the Constitution even as it flouts it.
But Trump can’t really conceal his contempt for the old republican ways. Last night, he posted this on social media:
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. Anybody can do that! The Dems are World Class Losers!!!
This is the voice of old-world autocracy. Those who take seriously the constraints and requirements of republican government are fools. Those who care that our republican government not be dependent on foreign states, that our elected leaders not take favors from foreign princes, they are losers.
Leave aside all the questions about Qatar’s ties with Iran and Hamas. Leave aside that Qatar, on the other hand, has been designated a major non-NATO ally, and that Qatar hosts the largest U.S. military installation in the Middle East.
This isn’t about Qatar. It’s about us.
Think about it this way: If Trump can accept this gift, why shouldn’t every military service member stationed in Qatar be able to accept gifts from its government or wealthy individuals there? Why should the commander-in-chief be able to accept emoluments when platoon commanders can’t?
He shouldn’t be.
There is one out available to Trump if he wishes both to take the gift and obey the Constitution. The Framers understood that there might be some occasions when it could be in our national interest for individuals holding an office of trust to accept a foreign gift. The Constitution doesn’t say that no gift can ever be accepted. It says that no gift can be accepted “without the consent of Congress.”
So Trump can submit his request for an exception to the ban on emoluments to the people’s representatives in Congress.
And whether Trump submits the request or not, Congress can and should take up the question of Trump’s gift. It should debate the issue in a way that honors our determination “to rest all our political experiments on the capacity of mankind for self-government.”
If we still hold to that determination.
This Is Your White House on Drugs
by Jonathan Cohn
President Trump on Monday plans to issue what he is calling “one of the most consequential Executive Orders in our Country’s history”—an order that, he said Sunday, will reduce prescription drug prices “almost immediately, by 30% to 80%.”
That sounds like the typical Trump bluster, and for the most part it is. Drug prices aren’t going to start plummeting tomorrow, or anytime soon. But it looks like the administration really is about to launch a serious policy initiative, one that credible people think could bring some relief on drug prices—although, even if those people are right, success would depend very much on the details and the execution.
The basic idea here is to somehow force pharmaceutical companies to offer U.S. buyers the same prices they offer in other countries, where prescription drugs cost way less. Trump has been calling this his “Most Favored Nation” initiative.
No, this concept isn’t very conservative. It’s basically a way of piggybacking on the government price-setting that takes place in countries like the U.K., Germany, and Japan—a method of regulation that, less than a year ago, Trump was attacking as “SOVIET price controls.”
But this is not a new idea for Trump, who has frequently complained that other countries are getting better deals on drug prices than Americans are. In 2020, he actually tried to implement a version of his “Most Favored Nation” initiative for a certain class of Medicare drugs, only to have courts block it because his administration hadn’t gone through the proper steps for writing regulations.
Now he’s trying again, although it’s not clear what drugs the new initiative is supposed to affect, or how mechanically it would work. The answers to those questions will go a long way to determining whether it can survive the courts this time around, because the president does have some authority over drug pricing—more than you might think, in fact. But that authority also has limits.
As for the merits of the idea, plenty of countries calculate their own prices based on what others pay, effectively guaranteeing they get the same kind of good deals as their peers. Policy wonks call this “international reference pricing.”
But precisely because Americans pay so much more than the rest of the world, introducing such a scheme here could have different effects—on the domestic market, and on the rest of the world too.
Again, a lot would depend on the details, which may or may not come with Monday’s executive order—and which may or may not be something I take up further in Tuesday night’s edition of The Breakdown.
By the way, the announcement is coming on the same day House Republicans are releasing the details of their plans to cut Medicaid, which the Congressional Budget Office estimates could cause more than 8 million people to become uninsured. Make of that timing what you will.
AROUND THE BULWARK
Eighty Years After WWII Ended, Some Europeans Forget Who the Bad Guys Were… Putin’s pals blame the Allies always, the Nazis sometimes, the Soviets never, writes DALIBOR ROHAC.
Our Democracy Is Actually Dying… On The Bulwark on Sunday, DANIEL ZIBLATT joins BILL KRISTOL to discuss the alarming authoritarian trends emerging during Trump's second term.
MAGA’s Bad Week… AMANDA CARPENTER(!) joins TIM MILLER on the flagship pod to talk about the news of the week, Trump acting like a Soviet central planner, the ugly reconciliation bill fight, and the economy proving yet again that it does not lie.
Trump Had One Job… On The Focus Group Podcast, DAVE WEIGEL joins SARAH LONGWELL to talk about Trump’s falling approval ratings, which means some of his voters aren’t getting what they voted for. What do they think?
A COMMON SENSE AGENDA FOR DEMOCRATS… On How to Fix It, JOHN AVLON and MATT YGLESIAS break down why Democrats need to focus on popular, practical ideas—like growth, safety, and common sense—to win voters and fix what’s broken.
Some Hollywood Tariff Game Theory… At The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood, SONNY BUNCH takes a look at “the Voight plan.” Yes, our economic policy is being partly written by actor Jon Voight, who holds a BFA from Catholic University.
Quick Hits
‘PRODUCE THE BODY’: Another day, another administration assault on our country’s bedrock legal rights. White House Villainy Czar Stephen Miller casually suggested to reporters on Friday that the administration was “actively looking at” suspending habeas corpus—the legal right for an arrested person to have his or her day in court.
It’s the cartoon-villain solution to the legal problem the White House is currently having, as court after court declines to give them a free pass on deporting migrants without due process.
Despite the open threat, lawmakers of both parties waved it off over the weekend. GOP Sen. John Barrasso said yesterday on Meet the Press that “I don’t believe this is going to come to Congress.” He added: “What I believe is the president is going to follow the law.” More inexplicably, Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar told Meet the Press that Miller was just distraction-mongering, speculating about something that’s “not going to happen” so that “you ask me about it on a Sunday show.”
“I’m telling you, right now, he’s doing it because they don’t want to focus on what’s really in front of them, and that they have created havoc in our economy,” Klobuchar added.
But the most straightforward reading of Miller’s words isn’t that it’s a public-messaging bankshot. It’s an attempt to extort the federal courts. “A lot of it depends on whether the courts do the right thing or not,” Miller said of the possible suspension. The message to the entire judiciary is obvious: You think this level of constitutional crisis is bad? Don’t think we won’t provoke a worse one.
—Andrew Egger
THE CUTS KEEP COMING: Much of the focus in the administration’s war on academia has been on the tiff between the White House and elite universities over DEI and antisemitism on campuses. But the most significant harm the White House is doing is on neither of those fronts. It’s the canceling or revocation of funds for scientific research. And the effects extend far beyond the Ivy League.
Over the weekend, a source sent The Bulwark an internal email that Stacey Patterson, who oversees Florida State University’s research operation, sent to her fellow faculty. Patterson wrote that, as of May 9, the university had “received 51 federal grant and/or contract cancellations that had remaining funding commitments of over $102 million.” The former sources of that cancelled money run the gamut: the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, USAID, the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Education.
Patterson wrote that the university has tried to put in place a contingency plan, but that “it is impossible for us to completely fill the gaps.” She also offered an ominous warning to those whose research funds remain intact.
“Please spend federal funds as scheduled in your award,” she wrote, “no cost extensions should not be assumed at this time. In fact, ALL NIH no cost extensions now require agency approval.”
In Donald Trump’s effort to shrink the government, universities have shouldered a large burden. But the impacts won’t be felt now. In fact, many won’t be evident at all. They will be measured in the discoveries and breakthroughs we didn’t make because Trump chose to cut off these funds.
—Sam Stein
Cheap Shots
When you’ve lost Laura Loomer:
I think Democrats should force the issue. They should submit a bill to approve the plane through the proper means and get every Republican on record voting for it. He is going to do what he wants anyway so we might as well get 47's minions on the record approving their deal leader receiving a gift from someone who is most definitely not an ally. Go on Republicans, approve that gift. DO IT.
"If we still hold to that determination"--Congressional debate and review.
So sorry, Mr. Kristol, we no longer have a functional Congress.
All we have is a rubber stamp for anything the orange narcissist-felon wants.