A Bribe With Wings

 

      On Juneteenth, Trump decided to commemorate the day not with celebrating the announcement of the end of slavery. No, perish the thought. Trump obviously thinks of the scourge of slavery with bittersweet fondness. No doubt, if he was in the White House, he would've immediately tried to make a deal with the slave-owning states because there would've been very fine (white) people on both sides.

      No. instead, Trump deliberately stole Juneteenth's thunder by rubbing our faces into his biggest violation of the Emoluments Clause in the Constitution: His $400,000,000 luxury jet gifted to him by the Qatari government. And, let's call it what it is: A bribe with wings.

     It's been described as a White House on wings. Trump called it a plane "for our country" although when reporters were given the ten cent tour, no cameras or photographs were allowed  because Trump and the psychopaths that surround him knew the optics would be horrible. The belt buckles all have the presidential seal on them as well as gold accents (of course). 

     The Air Force has spent the better part of the last year refurbishing the plane so that it meets all the requisite security standards for Air Force One. Aviation experts have estimated it cost the USAF a billion dollars or more so our government could ferry Trump's bloated carcass in even greater luxury than he'd hitherto enjoyed.

     As proof that this is indeed America's plane, it's already been mutually understood that when that merciful day comes when he's no longer in office, he gets to take the plane with him (or to his presidential library foundation, ha ha), despite the American taxpayer having spent one billion dollars or more on its refurbishment. 

     So, what can the Qataris expect for this naked $400,000,000 bribe? Well, some preferential treatment, obviously. Perhaps they don't want us looking too hard into their long, heinous record of human rights abuses. But here's something we all should be looking hard at: