“Trump administration poised to accept 'palace in the sky' as a gift for Trump from Qatar: Sources Donald Trump is reportedly ready to accept a luxury plane described to be a “palace in the sky” being offered to the US president as a gift from Qatar’s royal family, almost immediately igniting accusations of bribery and corruption as well as commensurate criticism. A statement from Qatar on Sunday acknowledged it had held discussions with the US about “the possible transfer” of a plane to be used temporarily by Trump as his presidential aircraft, usurping Air Force One. But the emirate’s statement denied a final decision over the transfer had been made – or that it was a gift. On Sunday, citing multiple sources familiar with the matter, ABC reported that the Trump administration was girding itself to accept a luxury Boeing 747-8, a jumbo jet from the Qatari royals that was estimated to be about $400m. Trump would then use the 13-year-old plane as the new Air Force One until shortly before the conclusion of his second Oval Office stint, at which point it would be transferred to his presidential library foundation no later than 1 January 2029. The luxury gift from Qatar was expected to be announced next week during Trump’s three-day tour of the Middle East that includes Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, ABC reported. Yet a Qatari spokesperson said it was “inaccurate” to say that the jet would be gifted “during the upcoming visit of president Trump”. Trump toured the opulent plane in February while it was parked at the West Palm Beach international airport, ABC added. Assuming Trump accepts the plane as planned, the jumbo jet would first be transferred to the US air force so the military branch could configure the aircraft to meet the specifications required for presidential travel, ABC’s sources told the network. The network added that any costs affiliated with its transfer would be paid for by the US air force, which receives a significant portion of the revenue generated by federal taxpayers. According to ABC’s sources, Trump’s attorney general Pam Bondi and his top White House lawyer David Warrington have pre-emptively concluded that it is “legally permissible” for Trump to accept the luxury gift and then transfer it over to his presidential library. Both reportedly arrived at that conclusion after lawyers for the White House counsel’s office as well as the justice department said the gifted plane was not conditioned on any official act and therefore was not bribery. Those lawyers drafted an analysis for defense secretary Pete Hegseth which reiterated that nothing about the plane violated federal laws prohibiting US government officials accepting gifts from foreign states or their royals. In fact, ABC’s sources said, Bondi’s reading of the situation was that the plane was being given to the US air force and then Trump’s presidential library foundation rather than her boss himself. Nevertheless, reports of the highly unusual – if not unprecedented – gift that Trump’s subordinates had afforded their blessing for him to receive triggered a wave of criticisms towards the president. The Democratic senator Chuck Schumer quickly mocked Trump’s political slogan of “America first”. “Nothing says ‘America First’ like Air Force One, brought to you by Qatar,” the US Senate minority leader from New York said in a statement. “It’s not just bribery – it’s premium foreign influence with extra legroom.” On X, Democratic congressman Jamie Raskin of Maryland said: “Trump must seek Congress’ consent to take this $300m from Qatar. The Constitution is perfectly clear: no present of any kind whatever’ from a foreign state without Congressional permission. A gift you use for four years and then deposit in your library is still a gift (and a grift).” Democratic pollster Matt McDermott echoed similar sentiments, saying: “Literally speechless… “A foreign regime gifting a jet to a former president. It’s bribery in broad daylight.” McDermott remarked that the Trump Organization run by the president’s children only days earlier had announced a new $5.5bn golf course in Qatar. “Today: Qatar ‘gifts’ Trump a luxury jet. Surely just a coincidence,” McDermott said. Meanwhile, Harvard University international security professor Juliette Kayyem said: “The surveillance and security aspects are also as disturbing as the grift.” https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/11/trump-accept-luxury-plane-gift-qatar
Qatar paying for Trump's flexibility. Maybe Iran is being moved to the back burner for now. Trump needs presents and constant flattery, but at least he's lowering drug prices.
If Trump lowered drug prices to Europe’s levels and avoided the Iran war. I would donate for cockpit dice. Money green and nuclear orange.
Let's see what else the Trump White House will accept... After Trump’s Qatar G(r)ift: Russia Offers to Remake White House IT System Now that it is clear that Donald Trump will accept gifts/bribes from foreign leaders, governments from across the globe rushed to offer their services as well. https://whowhatwhy.org/politics/us-...ously-offers-to-remake-white-house-it-system/ This is satire… until it all actually happens. After news broke on Sunday that Qatar offered to gift the United States Donald Trump a $400-million luxury jumbo jet, other countries immediately announced that they also wanted to express their gratitude to the US president. For example, Vladimir Putin announced that his government would provide the White House with a brand-new Russian-made IT system. “The Подзорная труба system will ensure that only the people for whom it was intended will have access to classified information, such as Ukraine’s defensive capabilities,” the Russian president said. “It should be used freely by anybody, without a concern for security.” Not to be outdone, China said it had developed an app for senior officials that it was gifting to the United States. “We were very distraught that the lying American media made such a big deal out of the revelation that a journalist was added to a chat group in which military strikes were discussed,” said Chinese President Xi Jinping. “However, this also shows that the Signal app is not the best way to communicate.” Therefore, the Chinese president said Beijing’s cybersecurity team had developed an app specifically for members of the Trump administration. “与我们分享一切 is an app that will take US-Chinese relationships to an entirely new level, and we are happy to make it available to President Trump at no charge,” Xi said. Other countries also offered various gifts. The Iranian government said it would be willing to remake the interior of the Oval Office and replace the faux gold decorations that Trump has installed with real gold. “It is no secret that the American president loves gold, and he deserves only the best,” Supreme Leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei said in a statement. “Therefore, the interior designers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps will remake the Oval Office into a space fit for a king at no cost to the American taxpayers.” In the meantime, Israel said it would make a butler from the Mossad’s concierge service available to Trump 24/7. “They will never be out of earshot,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. “So my good friend Donald just has to say the word and someone will be there to listen… like Siri, just Israeli.” When asked whether they would provide any goods or services to Trump, the Taliban stated that they got everything they wanted from him. “Nope, we’re good,” said the group’s leader Hibatullah Akhundzada.
The actual reality... Trump’s Drug Prices Executive Order Is a Big Pile of Nothing https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-drug-prices-executive-order-151855057.html Donald Trump is resurrecting one of his controversial first-term policies to supposedly hack prescription drug prices—but the whole effort is such a nothingburger that he very nearly forgot to sign the executive order enacting it. “Starting today the United States will no longer subsidize the health care of other countries, that’s what we were doing,” Trump said at a White House press conference Monday, referring to the European Union. He then claimed that low drug prices outside the U.S. were because the federal government had been financially offsetting would-be high prices in other countries. But that’s detached from reality—the U.S. pays more for drugs because it’s an outlier among high-income, first world countries, which predominantly support universal public health coverage. Trump’s first-term rule—“Most Favored Nation”—was focused on lowering the cost of Medicare payments on certain drugs, but it barely made it out of the White House. The policy was blocked by federal courts shortly after it was announced in late 2020, and was then rescinded by President Joe Biden in 2021. This time around, Trump’s order sets a 30-day deadline for drugmakers to negotiate lower prices. If there is no deal, then the U.S. will tie its drug prices to those paid by other countries. But as of now, nothing has changed. Trump reiterated that the U.S. would no longer “subsidize” drug prices in other countries, telling reporters that the “game is up,” while alluding to potentially increasing auto tariffs if they don’t comply. “If they want to get cute, they don’t have to sell cars into the United States anymore. They won’t get cute,” Trump said. “I’ll defend the drug companies from that standpoint.” He was also characteristically vague on how much prices would change. “Drug prices will come down by much more really if you think,” Trump said. “But between 59 and 80 and I guess even 90 percent.” “We’re getting them down 60, 70, 80, 90 percent. But actually more than that if you think about it in a way, mathematically.” Other things that researchers point to as potentially resolving high drug prices in the U.S. include restricting pharmaceutical monopolies within the country, reworking insurance benefits to restrict out-of-pocket costs, and recentralizing price negotiations through the leverage of a single-payer system (like those of Australia, Germany, the U.K., or any number of other wealthy nations), according to a report by the Commonwealth Fund, a private American foundation focused on health care reform. But none of that was on Trump’s radar. Instead, the president took time out of his morning to deride Obamacare, which (as of 2024) provided public health insurance to some 45 million Americans. Trump, however, claimed that it “doesn’t work.” In a post on Truth Social Sunday, Trump pledged that the initiative would save the government trillions of dollars and falsely claimed that Democrats had stood in the way of this kind of pharmaceutical reform, ignoring the fact that health care and pharmacy drug reform has been a pillar of the progressive platform in recent years (see: Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s “Medicare for All” 2021 revival, which would have created a single-payer system in this country). “Campaign Contributions can do wonders, but not with me, and not with the Republican Party. We are going to do the right thing, something that the Democrats have fought for many years,” Trump wrote. But in 2006, Republicans were the ones who adamantly stood in the way of federal drug-price negotiations, ripping the teeth out of a bill that would have mandated drug companies to negotiate lower drug prices with Medicare officials. “Instead of actually tackling the issues that concern average American families, the Republicans have passed legislation to help their wealthy friends and the huge corporations that support their campaigns,” said former North Carolina Representative G.K. Butterfield at the time before the measure passed.