Scandal, deals and a hostage release: Just another day in Trumpland

It was just another regular day in the second Trump administration. An American hostage tasted freedom after a surprise breakthrough with Hamas. An unprecedented ethics storm rocked the presidency. Officials claimed a huge “deal” with China on trade that looked a lot like a classic climb-down. And President Donald Trump, in a bid to cut drug prices for Americans, challenged longtime Republican economic dogma. With all that under his belt, Trump headed off on a trip to Gulf Arab states on a mission to drum up investment for the US that told a story about both his transactional money-obsessed administration and a new locus of global power. Trump snubs Israel – and gets the last living US hostage out of Gaza Trump’s juggling of critical global and domestic issues defines a presidency that constantly scans the horizons for “wins” that can animate a day with photo-ops. But the show is often erratic, reflecting his own volcanic temperament and disregard for constitutional impediments. And no one can be sure what happens next in a Washington maelstrom that is part of his appeal for supporters. But Trump’s flexibility and willingness to drop everything for a deal can open some avenues that might be closed to more conventional presidents. On Monday, he signed off on a deal to bypass America’s ally Israel and negotiated with Hamas, which committed the October 7, 2023, attacks. The initiative, worked out with Egypt and Qatar, freed the last living American hostage in Gaza, Edan Alexander. The scenes of joy as Alexander greeted his family would crack the hardest of hearts – even though thousands of Palestinians killed in Israeli bombardments or facing a humanitarian crisis in Gaza will never know similar reunions. The move also piled pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – who prioritizes the defeat of the ruthless Islamist group over more hostage releases – to do something similar. Trump is making a habit of snubbing Netanyahu. He shocked Israel by opening nuclear talks with Iran. And while he’s visiting Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates this week, he doesn’t plan a stop in the Jewish state. Alexander’s release was a much-needed triumph for Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff, whose global peace shuttles haven’t yielded much peace so far. But it might be an isolated episode, since there’s no sign of a realistic US plan to end a war that has killed tens of thousands of civilians. Trump’s earlier wild suggestion was to purge Gaza of Palestinians so he can build the “Riviera of the Middle East.” And Hamas has not agreed to cede security control of the wrecked enclave – the one concession that might prompt Israel to agree to end the war. But Brett McGurk, a former top Middle East policy official for administrations of both parties, told CNN’s Jake Tapper that the release – apparently timed by Hamas to coincide with Trump’s Middle East trip – was a “great moment, a great day.” He added: “I give the administration credit for (continuing) pushing; you never give up.” An ethics scandal of jumbo proportions If Alexander’s return showed compassion and diplomatic dexterity by the administration, a brewing storm over Trump’s plan to replace jets used as Air Force One highlighted his historic and brazen defiance of basic ethical standards. His defense of an idea for Qatar to gift the Defense Department a luxury $400 million 747, which would revert to his presidential library once he leaves office, ignored fears he’d be compromised by a foreign government. And it underscored concerns that he’s appeared to use his second presidency to enrich his businesses – from his firm’s expanding portfolio of luxury properties abroad to his lucrative $Trump meme coin. “I would never be one to turn down that kind of an offer. I mean, I could be a stupid person and say, ‘No, we don’t want a free, very expensive airplane,’” Trump said, blind to the ethics morass the Qatar plane deal could cause. For starters, the flying palace might infringe the emoluments clause of the Constitution, which prohibits a federal official from accepting a gift or payment from a foreign government. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted that every American knew Trump “only works with the interests of the American public in mind.” This is quite a claim, given that Trump’s first major foreign tour of his second term is swinging through a region where his family is launching new golf and hotel projects. Most presidents might consult the deliberations of the founders in the Federalist Papers for advice on this question. But Trump turned to the late ‘Slammin’ Sam Snead, no constitutional scholar but a golfer who won seven major championships in the 1940s and 1950s. “He was a great golfer. And he had a motto: When they give you a putt, you say, ‘Thank you very much,’ you pick up your ball, and you walk to the next hole,” Trump said. “A lot of people are stupid. They say, ‘No, no, I insist on putting it,’ and then they putt it, they miss it, and their partner gets angry at them,” Trump told reporters during a mini-meltdown at the White House. The moral of the story: Take what you can get, even if it’s not according to the strictest interpretation of the rules. To get the new plane ready to carry a president, Trump would have to spend millions of taxpayer cash on military upgrades and communications equipment. And the Secret Service would have to strip it to the screws to flush out any bugs planted by foreign intelligence agencies. There’s no guarantee that it would enter service before two multibillion-dollar budget-busting and long-overdue 747s already earmarked to serve as the presidential ride. But Trump’s vanity in pining for a replacement for the 1990s jumbos currently in service is certainly in character. It’s also rather embarrassing that the world’s mightiest superpower would rely on an ally to get a new plane – manufactured by an American company. But Trump’s quest for a new Air Force One could turn into a political liability. Ex-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy advised him to drop it. “Let’s let Boeing finish that – the new planes (are) coming in,” McCarthy told Zain Asher and Bianna Golodryga on CNN International. The former California Republican representative added: “I think America can afford their own plane and build their own Air Force One.” A deal forged on patio sofas Trump started Monday by boasting about a breakthrough in China trade talks in Switzerland. “We achieved a total reset with China,” the president said. What actually happened was that both sides stepped back from the brink of a showdown that could have destroyed the global economy – which Trump caused. In another perennial Trump move, there’s yet another deadline, of 90 days, to negotiate concessions while mutual tariffs are reduced by 115 percentage points. US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the agreement, largely negotiated at the residence of the Swiss ambassador to the UN in Geneva “under a big, beautiful tree on a set of patio sofas,” is a first step toward balancing trade. Yet the deal, hammered out under the stewardship of the increasingly influential Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, also looks like a Trumpian retreat – only a week after the president was warning parents that their kids would have to make do with just a couple of dolls as new restrictions on China kicked in. Beijing appears so far to have made no meaningful concessions. And Trump has rolled back his 145% duties on Chinese imports while still saddling US consumers with a 30% tariff on those goods. “It’s very clear that it’s President Trump who blinked,” former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers told CNN’s Kasie Hunt. “Sometimes it’s good to blink; when you make a mistake it’s usually best to correct it and retreat even if it’s a little bit embarrassing.” Trump justifies his use of tariffs – a device that deepened the Great Depression nearly a century ago – by the need to reverse the tide of globalization that left many working Americans stranded. That same rationale lay behind another policy move Monday that showed how a populist president sometimes trashes Republican economic orthodoxy. Trump signed an executive order designed to bring the price Americans pay for prescription drugs in line with prices abroad, where governments with state health care systems can negotiate down costs. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pointed out the political leap the president was attempting. “This is an extraordinary day. I grew up in the Democratic Party, and every major Democratic leader for 20 years been making this promise to the American people,” Kennedy said. “It’s one of these promises that politicians make to their constituents knowing that they’ll never have to do it.” “We now have a president who is a man of his word, who has the courage,” Kennedy added. But Trump may fall short. A similar effort in his first term was blocked in the courts. And the power of pharmaceutical lobbyists in Congress means that a more permanent change in the law is unlikely. Still, he keeps flirting with GOP policy heresy. He even suggested the rich should pay more to finance his ambitious tax-cut plan, which he hopes will exclude exemptions for wages earned as tips. Some of this is positioning for political effect. But after three months in which the president’s approval ratings plunged, a Trump voter might consider a hostage release, a bid to cut drug prices and a trade deal with China as a good day’s work. But perhaps the less said about the Qatari jumbo jet, the better.