Do you still remember the plane that Qatar gave Donald Trump? A little over a week ago, the US president accepted a $400 million “gift” from the Gulf monarchy – a move that was somehow approved as legal by his attorney general, Pam Bondi, herself a former Qatari lobbyist. In the days that followed, Trump shared seats at a private dinner with the largest shareholders of his personal “memcoin.” With Trump, the corrupt practices are happening so fast that it’s hard to keep up, while the public is finding it increasingly difficult to focus on any one specific scandal.
Yet there is something special about that plane. The story reveals the peculiarities of the Trump regime compared to other kleptocracies and hints at future political turbulence in the most corrupt administration in US history.
The context of the story is that after being given a private tour of a Qatari Boeing 747—a gold-plated “sky palace”—in Florida, Trump allegedly became obsessed. Boeing’s delivery of new planes for the presidential fleet had been delayed until 2027 or later, and here was a plane with all of Trump’s favorite trappings: gold (real or fake) and kitsch in a style that one architectural critic called “provincial car show rococo.”
The original palaces served as residences for Roman emperors. The mixture of official administration and private life was a signal that the state belonged to a particular person. Therefore, as an aesthetic form, the palace is fundamentally inappropriate in a democracy (unless, as in some former or current monarchies, there are clear design decisions that distance the occupants from anything resembling dictatorial chic).
Trump’s complete disregard for the functional requirements that a presidential jet must meet further demonstrates that he is primarily interested in a television presidency. Only what is immediately visible is important. Never mind that it could take years to bring the “flying palace” up to the standards of a presidential jet (it needs to be a flying command post capable of surviving a nuclear war and impenetrable to enemy eavesdropping devices). The fact that this process could cost billions is secondary to the immediate effect of making a great “deal” and enjoying a copy of the royal glamour of the Gulf states.
It’s no wonder that the Trump administration has been filled with inexperienced—and in more than one case, clearly incompetent—television commentators, mostly from Fox News. But more importantly, this plane signals to everyone that the American president is open to business and eager to monetize his position. As South African President Cyril Ramaphosa put it during his recent visit to the White House: “I’m sorry I don’t have a plane to give you.”
In this respect, the Trump regime is fundamentally different from other autocracies where the ruler and his family enrich themselves. After all, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán have always been careful to hide their ill-gotten wealth. The murdered Russian dissident Alexei Navalny was targeted precisely because he exposed Putin’s corruption, offering irrefutable evidence of a “Putin palace” on the Black Sea. Similarly, Orbán has faced growing public criticism over the business dealings of his son-in-law, one of the richest men in the country.
So when it comes to corruption, Trump is in a class of his own. Having always presented himself as a successful businessman, each new venture – regardless of the obvious conflict of interest – seems to strengthen his brand. Unlike other ambitious autocrats, he is not concerned with international organizations, let alone the opinion of the international community. There is no need, for example, to deceive the European Commission that EU funds are not being diverted to friends and family – as Orbán has to do.
On the contrary, by disbanding his attorney general's anti-kleptocracy teams and overturning penalties for American companies for paying bribes abroad, Trump is sending a clear signal that abuse of power is now the main American business. And once people are convinced that everyone is corrupt, the real kleptocrats win.
Americans are paying a high price for learning that simply exposing corruption is not enough. In a pattern that has been established, right-wing populists come to power on a crusade against corruption, only to widen the corrupt “swamp.” It is naive to think that they are doomed to political ruin because of their flagrant betrayal of the public interest. They convince their followers that corruption is not corruption, but a legitimate part of the mass clientelism typical of populist regimes. The “real people” receive benefits and favors from the bureaucracy (including pardons), while the rest get nothing.
Other populist tricks work only in certain contexts. For example, former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who was dogged by tax fraud allegations throughout his career, would wink at Italians: “Everyone does it. I’m just better at it.” If that sounds familiar, it’s because Trump said almost exactly the same thing when he ran for president in 2016. But he went further than Berlusconi and attacked the tax authorities, making life easier for various fraudsters.
However, the Qatar plane scandal could disrupt the pattern of impunity. It is much easier to understand it as an example of shameless corruption than, say, abstract schemes for making money on cryptocurrencies (at least until the financial collapse of most participants in this pyramid scheme). This event can also be interpreted as an indirect admission of America's powerlessness. Have we really reached the point where the large American company Boeing is no longer able to deliver an airplane to the most powerful person in the world on time? This is reminiscent of East German leaders driving around in Swedish cars - it was a tacit admission that the industrial capacities of the state socialist regime were not enough.
Last but not least, even staunch Trump supporters are sick of him accepting gifts from a state known for funding Hamas. The political cost of a supposedly “free” gift could be quite high.
(Project Syndicate; Peščanik.net, translation: M. Jovanović)
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