Trump is entering a new era of grift – and doesn’t even care to hide it

When the news broke over the weekend that the Qatari royal family was planning to give him a $400m Boeing 747-8 to serve as the new Air Force One, even some of his most loyal supporters could not believe it.

“I love President Trump. I would take a bullet for him,” wrote far-right influencer Laura Loomer on her social media account.

But then came her withering caveat. “I have to call a spade a spade,” she said. “We cannot accept a $400 million ‘gift’ from jihadists in suits.” She called the President’s decision to accept the jet a “stain” on his record.

As one Fox News host put it: “Hell hath now frozen over…if you’ve lost Loomer, you’re losing the argument”.

The Qatari Boeing 747-8 which Trump wants to serve as the new Air Force One, seen in a file photo from February 2025 (Photo: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

But the President faced no similar pushback from his own cabinet officials, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, and White House Counsel David Warrington.

The two dutifully approved his decision accept the jet, finding legal mechanisms to accede to Trump’s argument that not accepting the gift would be “stupid”.

It marked another step towards the total overlap of the President’s official duties with his own money-making.

Last week, as he was preparing to begin his tour of the Middle East, The New York Times reported that his two adult sons were engaged in “a blitz of family money-making ventures” in the very countries Trump was about to visit.

Eric Trump, right, the President’s second son, at a crypto conference in Dubai this month (Photo: Giuseppe Cacace/AFP)

The family announced plans to develop a luxury hotel in Dubai, a new high-end residential tower in the Saudi city of Jeddah, a golf course and a new villa complex in Qatar.

The projects encompass billions of dollars in investments that corruption watchdogs argue is unequalled in American history.

The Qataris are proving particularly adept at greasing the wheels not only of the Trumps, but also of prominent figures in the President’s entourage.

Interior images of the Qatari plane that Donald Trump wants to be the next Air Force One (Photo: AMAC Aerospace)

Interior of the Qatari plane Trump wants as the next Air Force One (Photo: AMAC Aerospace)

The President, who has promised to be a “champion” of the crypto industry, is also benefitting massively from crypto tokens that bear his name and that of First Lady Melania Trump.

Last week, a new report claimed that the President and his wife had netted a $2.9bn profit via two “meme coins” launched in the days leading up to his inauguration.

The report, by the advocacy group State Democracy Defenders Action, argued that “as a stakeholder in crypto assets, President Trump will likely profit from the very policies that he is pursuing”.

During his first term in the White House, Trump at least went through the motions of claiming to separate the office of the presidency from his own personal fortunes.

In January 2017, he filed papers in Florida promising to resign from his 400 separate companies. He also invited reporters to watch him sign paperwork that he claimed would pass control of the Trump Organisation over to his two adult sons in order to avoid any semblance of a conflict of interest.

When reporters asked to look at the binders full of documents that Trump claimed to be signing, White House officials denied the request, citing confidentiality.

Journalists in the room reported that many of the papers appeared to be blank.

This time around, there has been no similar effort even to claim that he is uninvolved in his business empire.

Purchasers of his digital crypto coins were promised last month that leading buyers could win a tour of the White House conducted by the President himself.

Other available prizes included a private dinner with Trump at one of his golf resorts.

Meanwhile, Melania is also raking in the cash, having secured a $40m deal from Amazon’s Jeff Bezos to produce a documentary all about her own life.

Melania Trump has spent only two weeks in the White House since inauguration day in January (Photo: Kayla Bartkowski/Getty)

She is starring in the film, which has a budget that many documentarians view as eye-watering. Last week it was reported that the First Lady has spent just 14 days at the White House since her husband’s inauguration on 20 January.

Trump’s insistence that there is nothing wrong with his decision to accept the Boeing 747 from Qatar leaves the country’s intelligence agencies in a quandary.

Experts say it could take “years” to screen the aircraft for listening devices and other pieces of espionage equipment. But Trump is expressing no qualms about accepting what may be the most expensive gift ever bestowed on an American president.

“I could say no…or I can say ‘thank you very much’”, he told reporters at the White House on Monday.

Foreign governments or private businesses seeking to secure the President’s gratitude and secure influence over him are now on notice: the Oval Office doors are open.