Trump has said that rejecting the jet gift would be stupid. — AFP
PEOPLE who reject gifts aren’t always stupid. Just ask the Trojans. Oh, wait.
Maybe President Donald Trump never read The Odyssey. But even if there are no Qataris or their technology hiding inside a US$400mil (RM1.7bil) luxury jet that country reportedly gifted to the United States, there are plain ethical reasons our president should not be in the business of accepting extravagant gifts from foreign nations.
The president pulls the far left off sides plenty, not only because of his policies but with his disregard for the social orthodoxies that had become strictures of rightspeak in American society.
There are times we agree with his policies, and there are times we disagree. On the whole, we agree with his confrontation of the left’s hegemony over universities, media and other areas of culture. But all of that is a waste if Trump’s repeated flaunting of basic ethical standards undermines his presidency, endangers American security and weakens our standing in the world.
“I mean, I could be a stupid person and say, ‘No, we don’t want a free, very expensive airplane.’ But it was – I thought it was a great gesture,” Trump said, testily, in response to questions about the plane.
Either it doesn’t occur to Trump that expensive gifts from foreign powers aren’t just gifts or he’s indifferent to the basic ethics that any professional person would operate under in order to avoid a conflict of interest.
This is part and parcel of a common theme of how he uses his office to further his personal interests. Recall that before he was re-elected, Trump launched the meme coin $TRUMP. We feel confident in saying that most of the investments in that coin aren’t related to its long-term market value. Many $TRUMP investors appear to represent foreign interests.
The Times reported earlier this month that a fund backed by Abu Dhabi “would be making a US$2bil business deal using the Trump firm’s digital coins.”
Trump, meanwhile, has paused enforcement of what’s known as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a law intended to prevent US firms from bribing foreign governments. The apparent logic behind this decision was that everyone else is engaging in corruption so it’s unfair if American companies can’t too.
Lowering the norms of American standards will do lasting damage to our standing as a country. The US is the place people long to reach because we try to operate according to a rule of law that reflects an ethic of fairness, transparency and honesty.
The Qatari plane is a winged symbol of indifference to those standards. There may not be Greeks hiding inside, but bringing it past our gates makes all Americans weaker. — Dallas Morning News/TNS
