In President Trump’s first term, the idea that private interests and governments purchased meals and reserved rooms at hotels launched legal and ethical alarms about the potential for corruption.
Mr Trump’s second term makes these concerns seem insignificant.
The administration’s plan to accept a $400 million luxury jet from the Qatar Royal family is the latest example of the increasingly fraught atmosphere in Washington under Trump 2.0.
The second Trump administration shows a striking disdain for the once-established norms and traditional legal and political guardrails around public service. The Supreme Court was apparently encouraged last year, partly because of the political reality that Presidents are granted immunity for their official actions and that means there was no fear of recrimination over Mr Trump’s attitude to the Republican Party.
Mr. Trump’s inaugural committee more than doubled the record set aside for dinners and events from $107 million in 2017 to $239 million in 2018, doubling the record for dinners and events from $107 million in 2017 to $239 million in 2018, and did not say what would happen to the funds.
Before returning to office, Mr. Trump launched $Trump, a titanic crypto currency that allows crypto investors around the world to enrich him. His family has already made millions from trading fees and his own digital mine’s money reserve is worth billions on paper.
This month, Mr Trump went even further by holding an auction to help fund the coin’s sale, saying the best buyers would have a special dinner at one of the golf fields and the biggest owner would visit the White House. Although the competition had no intrinsic value, it has injected a new interest in the coin.
The removal of such restrictions extends to law enforcement officials.
In April, the Trump administration delivered a Justice Department tasked with investigating cryptocurrency crimes.
Earlier, Mr Trump also ordered the department to suspend implementation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which made it a crime for companies operating in the United States to bribe foreign officials.
And Attorney General Pam Bondi, herself a former high-paid lobbyist for Qatar, narrowed implementation of the law by asking lobbyists to register such ties and explain those paid to foreign governments.
The administration did not explain to the public its legal analysis of the agreement with Qatar.
Mrs. Bondi’s plan was legally blessed by a note from the Justice Ministry, but the person, the Legal Counsel Office, was prepared and cleared by lawyers, a person familiar with the matter said.
To be sure, the directives for cultural change precede Mr. Trump. In 2016, the Supreme Court unanimously vacated the graft conviction of a former Virginia governor and made it harder to prosecute public officials for corruption by narrowing what federal bribery laws considered official action.
And Washington has always been a place where money and politics can be invisible, a place where no party has a monopoly on those willing to profit from public office for special earnings.
Last year, for example, Robert Menendez, a Democratic senator from New Jersey, resigned after being convicted of bribery.
Hunter Biden won a lucrative seat on the board of a Ukrainian gas company, while his father Joseph R. Biden Jr. became vice president.
However, it is particularly notable for the explicitness with which Mr. Trump combined the acquisition of a Qatari aircraft with the merger of Crypto Gambit, in order to secure the personal benefits of the President, his close family and his class separately from the policies of the government.
Mr. Trump pressured several prominent law firms to donate millions of dollars of pro bono legal services to his favorite causes, and used as a cudgel the threat of official actions such as barring themselves and their clients from government affairs. (Other law firms have fought his directives in court with increasing success.)
He also found other ways to get money from technology companies. Amazon reportedly paid $40 million for the rights to publish a future documentary about First Lady Melania Trump.
Meta agreed to pay Mr Trump’s future presidential museum $25 million to build and manage a future presidential museum, and settled a suit with Facebook over the suspension of his account following his falsehoods about the 2020 election that led to the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Mr. Trump’s plan for the Qatar plane is to use it as an Air Force One until the end of his presidency, and have Boeing build a new generation presidential plane. The Pentagon will later transfer it to the museum foundation. (He added, “Library,
Mr Trump compared the plan to Ronald Reagan’s museum in Simi Valley, California, now a star attraction. However, the plane was at the end of its life – it was used as an Air Force One from 1973 to 2001 before being scrapped. Plus, it remains Air Force property and is only on permanent loan .
The Qatar plane will still be new in 2029, and the museum foundation, governed by its allies, will raise the question of whether the museum foundation will continue to use the plane after Mr Trump leaves office. On Monday, Mr Trump rejected that this was his intention.
Still, it was unclear why it would benefit the US government to have an expensive and almost new aircraft. However, parking a future Trump museum contributes to Mr. Trump’s glory.
On Monday, Mr Trump also pointed out that Qatar had also offered an airplane as a quid pro quo, insisting that the US provides security to the Gulf country and “we will continue to do so”.
He said he viewed the gift from the Qataris as a “very beautiful gesture … just a stupid person,” he said, “free of charge.”