Hell hath now frozen over.
President Donald Trump’s decision to accept a $400-million plane from Qatar, as a gift, has prompted stinging criticism from Laura Loomer.
She’s the hard-right activist who specializes in getting the president to fire top officials and withdraw nominees, or at least claims credit for doing so.
If you’ve lost Loomer, you’re losing the argument.
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Not according to Donald Trump. He told reporters yesterday that this was a “great gesture” by Qatar, done because “we keep them safe,” referring to Qatar and the UAE, which he’ll be visiting after Saudi Arabia.
He said the maintenance costs on the 40-year-old Air Force One planes are astronomical, and noted that the Reagan Library has such a plane. The decommissioned Qatar aircraft will go to a future Trump Library.
But the Gipper’s plane didn’t come from Qatar.
“How are we supposed to ever see the US under the Trump admin designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization,” Loomer wrote, “if the US is now going to accept a $400 million jet from Qatar to fly the US President and his staff around on?”
Calling the episode a “stain” on his tenure, she added: “I love President Trump. I would take a bullet for him. But, I have to call a spade a spade. We cannot accept a $400 million ‘gift’ from jihadists in suits. The Qataris fund the same Iranian proxies in Hamas and Hezbollah who have murdered US Service Members. The same proxies that have worked with the Mexican cartels to get jihadists across our border.”
The media are in an uproar as well, and the story has only grown bigger since it was first reported by ABC News.
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Of course, the luxury 747 will have to be upgraded with secure communications and military equipment. That would take at least till the end of the year.
But one Pentagon official told the New York Times “we’re talking years, not months.”
Trump consulted Elon Musk, the DOGE leader and head of SpaceX, who told him that the plane could be delivered in a year.
Two loyalists – Attorney General Pam Bondi and White House Counsel David Warrington – approved the arrangement, according to the Times. Trump toured the 747 in February when it was parked at the Palm Beach airport.
There was a Plan B that got derailed. The Qataris offered to donate the plane immediately to the future Trump Library.
But administration lawyers said that would violate the Constitution’s emoluments clause – which as Beltway insiders know, bars any federal official from accepting personal gifts from a foreign nation without the approval of Congress.
The president’s “flood the zone” approach has ensured that this isn’t the only story out there.
He announced that after two days of talks, the U.S. and China reached a 90-day agreement that would reduce tariffs on Beijing from 145% to 30%, and Chinese tariffs would be cut to 10%.
It’s clear that Trump blinked. Having tanked the markets (which soared yesterday), he was under enormous pressure to undo the damage. So now we’re back to square one, roughly where we might have been without igniting a global crisis.
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But perhaps Xi Jinping blinked as well. His government was feeling the impact of the sky-high tariffs as well. The Chinese, with considerably less enthusiasm, said the “mistake” would only lead to further negotiations.
Trump also was able to announce a cease-fire in the escalating war between India and Pakistan, thanks to some weekend diplomacy by Marco Rubio and JD Vance.
Trump also was able to announce that Hamas was freeing the last living American hostage being held by the terrorist group.
Trump also sided with Vladimir Putin, who wants to meet for peace talks with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who first wants a 30-day cease-fire, so that Moscow doesn’t continue the killing and gain more territory while stalling on any pause in the fighting.
Trump also was able to unveil a plan that he says will lower the cost of prescription drugs by 30 to 80%.
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But circling back to the 747, the president chided ABC’s Rachel Scott when she tried to question him about the plane:
“You’re ABC fake news, right? Only ABC — well, a few of you would… Let me tell you, you should be embarrassed asking that question. They’re giving us a free jet. I could say, ‘No, no no, don’t give us. I want to pay you a billion, or 400 million, or whatever it is’ Or I could say, ‘thank you very much.'”
Scott tried again: “Respectfully, sir, as a businessman, some people may look at this and say, have you ever been given a gift worth millions of dollars and then not —”
“It’s not a gift to me, it’s a gift to the Department of Defense,” Trump said. “And you should know better, because you’ve been embarrassed enough, and so has your network. Your network is a disaster. ABC is a disaster.”
Whether the president is right or wrong, it seems like these are legitimate questions. And the media are always a great foil for him. So I don’t see him backing down.
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