That Plane from Qatar
Watching Republicans not react to The Plane made for two or three minutes of interesting television last spring. Mostly they skittered away from the cameras, like bugs suddenly revealed by a bright kitchen light. It was akin to those scenes in a New York apartment. You open the cupboard in the middle of the night and see the roaches beat it for the crevices. No matter the shape and size of the scandal, Republicans have lost the will to break with Voldemort.
I’m grateful to say that the Democrats went on record. Twenty-six senators, led by Michael Bennet of Colorado, took up the issue with (moderate) gusto. They pointed to the obvious self-dealing of the episode, the personal benefits that would flow to the President. The unfortunate fact is that the issue quickly died, overwhelmed by news about other matters. I say “unfortunate” because this was a promising scandal for those who would like to see this administration defeated. The plane was not an abstraction like a policy, but a physical, three-dimensional object. It had the pull and presence of a material thing and could have helped the country focus its attention. In that sense, it was like the Epstein scandal, with its enduring hold on the imagination of the country.
But if Part One of this episode passed without consequence, I am here to report that there is another opportunity. The original facts still stand in force. The President accepted a personal gift from Qatar under the guise of a benefit to the country as a whole. The plane will still need a gut job to bring it to code, meaning new technology to ensure its safety in the air and a laborious swab to clear it of listening devices, which everyone assumes were part of the plan. The job is likely to cost a bajillion, while Boeing finishes work on two other planes scheduled for delivery in time for the next president. All of this so that at the end of his tenure, Trump can walk away with a plane that is up to his standards of tinsel and gilt. More gold toilet seats. More gold everything.
What’s new came in this week’s news. Thanks to reporting from the New York Times, it now appears that a bajillion is about right. The same people who are preparing to snatch food from the poor, health care from the sick, and Social Security from all of us are now nodding enthusiastically about the “gift” from Qatar. The price tag, you ask? A billion dollars. And if you thought it would be a gift from Mark Zuckerberg, please know that you are wrong, wrong, wrong. The sleuths from the Times know their business. A secret transfer to the Pentagon budget intended to enhance our arsenal of missiles. will be used in part to fund the renovation of the plane. Pete Hegseth was only too happy to help. You can read it for yourself by punching up the article (July 27, 2025).
But reading the article is only the beginning. Crucial mid-terms are just around the corner. Think of the plane as a way to talk about Trump. It’s clear and concrete and makes the case without effort, a summary statement of greed and venality, a useful stand-in for so much that’s so wrong. We have to set up simple, resonant conversations that communicate the moral emptiness of this administration. Try out the plane and let me know how it goes. I think that it’s one of those issues that could change minds in the election.