This is an adapted excerpt from the May 13 episode of “The Briefing with Jen Psaki.”
By now, you’ve probably heard about the big headline out of Donald Trump’s trip to the Middle East: The $400 million luxury plane he’s set to receive as a gift from the nation of Qatar. Trump says he wants the plane to become the new Air Force One, but only for the duration of his presidency, after which ownership of the plane would be transferred to Trump’s presidential library.
The whole thing is super shady, and even a lot of conservatives don’t want the president to accept this plane. But Trump says it’s just too good a deal to pass up. In a post on Truth Social, Trump called the new plane a “GIFT, FREE OF CHARGE,” which is definitely not true.
[A] private contractor would have to rip it apart to turn the jet into a flying White House for the president with secure communications and classified upgrades, according to former Air Force officials and lawmakers, an expensive and complicated prospect that could cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars … Add to that the significant cost of sweeping the aircraft for software modifications or embedded foreign tech.
Trump’s free-of-charge gift looks a lot more expensive when you factor in all that. It’s also worth mentioning that the U.S. government is already spending billions of dollars on two new Air Force One planes made by Boeing.
But Trump doesn’t care about these costs for the American taxpayer. All he cares about is his new palace in the sky and big checks for his billionaire buddies, who lined up to shake hands with the president and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at a business forum in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.
That’s what the billionaires are getting out of this trip. The question is: What are the American people getting out of it?
Because if this trip won’t actually create a million American jobs, if the $400 million plane would actually cost taxpayers millions, if all of Trump’s stated reasons for making this his first big trip abroad don’t stand up to even the slightest bit of scrutiny, then why is the president really there?
Well, for the same reason all those billionaires are there: lots and lots of money. No, not for American companies, not for the American taxpayer, but for Trump and his family directly.
Remember how universally Trump was shunned after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol? Banks cut ties with him. Social media companies kicked him off their platforms. Dozens of other companies also actively distanced themselves from Trump and his election denialism.
But there was one type of company that shunned Trump in a way that really stung him. The Professional Golfers’ Association, or PGA, canceled its championship at Trump’s Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club. Across the pond, the R&A, golf’s Scotland-based governing body, dropped Trump’s property as a potential host for its championship. These were pretty big blows for the owner of a golf-centered real estate empire.
At the time, Trump owned 17 golf courses around the world, with some of them reportedly charging six figures just to be initiated as members. While some of the price tag there came from people trying to gain access to the president, in January 2021, gaining access to Trump wasn’t exactly a hot ticket.
But right as Trump’s golf empire was losing its biggest draws, an entirely new league filled the void: LIV Golf. When it launched in 2021, its slogan was “Golf, but louder.” And while the PGA and R&A were cutting ties with Trump, LIV Golf was making deals.
It hosted a tournament at Trump’s golf club in Bedminster and another at Trump’s golf club in Doral, Florida. The league used hundreds of millions of dollars to attract golf’s top athletes and make those tournaments at Trump properties actually matter to sports fans.
So, who exactly was behind this brand-new golf league that was saving Trump’s golf empire? The Saudi sovereign wealth fund. Now, if you are wondering where you remember the Saudi sovereign wealth fund from, you may be thinking of when that same fund gave Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, $2 billion for his venture capital firm shortly after he left the White House. If that wasn’t enough, last year, a real estate firm with deep ties to the Saudi Arabian government struck a deal for a new development project for a “Trump Tower: Saudi Arabia.” It’s not a new thing for foreign countries to shower U.S. officials with inappropriate gifts, but the scale of this operation is something we have never seen before. But of course, that is just some of the money that Trump and his family have received from one country that is now on Trump’s Middle East trip. The president’s trip also includes visits to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Just last month, Eric Trump flew to Qatar to sign a deal to build a Trump-branded golf course in the country. This one, which will be built by the same Saudi Arabian developer, will be located just north of Qatar’s capital city, Doha, and has a reported price tag of $5.5 billion. It’s reportedly set to include an 18-hole golf course, a theme park and beachfront villas. That, of course, comes on top of the $400 million plane Qatar is reportedly planning to gift Trump. So that’s some of what Trump is getting from Saudi Arabia and Qatar, but what about the third stop on his trip? What about the UAE? Well, Eric Trump also inked a deal for the Saudi-linked development company to build a new Trump International Hotel and Tower in Dubai. The billion-dollar, 80-story tower plans to boast a gym, a club called “the Trump” and what is being billed as the highest pool in the world on the roof. Most importantly, the joint comes with 126 hotel rooms and 446 apartments with prices starting at just north of $1 million each, with penthouses going for $20 million a pop. It’s not a new thing for foreign countries to shower U.S. officials with inappropriate gifts, but this is different. For one thing, U.S. officials typically turn down inappropriate gifts — there’s no sign of that here — but beyond that, the scale of this operation is something we have never seen before. Trump’s money-making scheme has only become more brazen in his second term, and on this first foreign trip, he is clearly demonstrating that he and his family are open for business.
Jen Psaki is the host of "The Briefing with Jen Psaki" airing Tuesdays through Fridays at 9 p.m. EST. She is the former White House press secretary for President Joe Biden.
Allison Detzel is an editor/producer for MS NOW.
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