The Trump Administration Has No Shame
They are still lying badly -- but for how long?
The hard-working staff here at Drezner’s World is aware that readers might be interested in thoughts on the recent trade “deals” with the United Kingdom and China. I will oblige with such analysis later in the week — but not today. This is for two reasons. The first is that the surfeit of trade takes has been so prodigious that I need to contemplate What It All Means to ensure that my take is not superfluous.
The second reason is that every time I try to think about analyzing trade policy I feel like I am ignoring the larger stories. Because over the past 72 hours the Trump administration has taken two actions that reveal their bigoted and corrupt intentions as clear as day.
The first concerns the administration’s policy on refugees. In its first hundred days the second Trump administration has already done a lot to reverse refugee flows into the United States. The administration has;
Expanded the expedited removal program;
Tried to revoke the Temporary Protected Status of those living in this country legally;
Over the weekend, however, the New York Times reported that the Trump administration was prepared to reverse course and finally admit some refugees. And you’ll never guess which refugees!
The Trump administration is planning to bring the first group of white South Africans it has classified as refugees to the United States on Monday, according to officials briefed on the plans and documents obtained by The New York Times.
Although the president halted virtually all other refugee admissions shortly after he took office in January, his administration hastily put together a program to allow in white South Africans, who he claims have been the victims of racial persecution in their home country.
The administration plans to send government officials to Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia for an event marking the arrival of the South Africans, who belong to the white minority Afrikaner ethnic group, according to a memo from the Department of Health and Human Services….
While the program remains suspended for refugees across the world, such as Congolese families in refugee camps and Rohingya seeking safety, white South Africans were processed much faster than is normal for these cases.
Refugees can often wait years in camps around the world before they are processed and approved to travel to the United States. Before the first Trump administration, refugee resettlement took an average of 18 to 24 months, according to the American Immigration Council, an advocacy group for immigrants. Many refugees must wait years longer.
The Afrikaners, however, had to wait no more than three months.
The Times follow-up story on Monday suggested that Trump’s stated motivation might not be completely on the up and up:
“Farmers are being killed,” Mr. Trump told reporters before leaving for a trip to the Middle East. “They happen to be white. Whether they are white or Black makes no difference to me. White farmers are being brutally killed, and the land is being confiscated in South Africa.”
South African police data does not support the narrative of mass murder. From April 2020 to March 2024, 225 people were killed on farms in South Africa, according to the police. But many of the victims — 101 — were current or former workers living on farms, who are mostly Black. Fifty-three of the victims were farmers, who are usually white.
Gosh, this is confusing. I wonder why the Afrikaners were bumped to the front of the queue. Okay, that’s a lie, I know exactly why that’s the case — Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau answered the question:
As Radley Balko pointed out on Bluesky, “This is obviously thinly-veiled racism. But it’s also a bullshit premise. Haitian refugees were thriving in Springfield. Bhutanese, Congolese, other refugees from Africa & Asia have reinvigorated Rust Belt towns and cities.” That the Trump administration acted on Afrikaners while revoking the Temporary Protected Status of Afghans is particularly striking.
So let’s just say it: the Trump administration has accepted Afrikaners because they were white and rejected almost everyone else because they are not white. And by Trump administration’s self-definition of the United States, non-white people do not fit in and should be non-Americans.
The other story is the ridiculous, brazen, don’t-call-it-a-bribe that the government of Qatar is proposing to give to President Trump. ABC News’ Jonathan Karl and Katherine Faulders broke the story:
In what may be the most valuable gift ever extended to the United States from a foreign government, the Trump administration is preparing to accept a super luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet from the royal family of Qatar -- a gift that is to be available for use by President Donald Trump as the new Air Force One until shortly before he leaves office, at which time ownership of the plane will be transferred to the Trump presidential library foundation, sources familiar with the proposed arrangement told ABC News.
The gift had been expected to be announced next week, when Trump visits Qatar on the first foreign trip of his second term, according to sources familiar with the plans. But a senior White House official said the gift will not be presented or gifted while the president is in Qatar this week.
In a social media post Sunday night, Trump confirmed his administration was preparing to accept the aircraft, calling it a "very public and transparent transaction" with the Defense Department….
Sources told ABC News that lawyers for the White House counsel's office and the Department of Justice drafted an analysis for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth concluding that is legal for the Department of Defense to accept the aircraft as a gift and later turn it over to the Trump library, and that it does not violate laws against bribery or the Constitution's prohibition (the emoluments clause) of any U.S. government official accepting gifts "from any King, Prince or foreign State."….
The plane will initially be transferred to the United States Air Force, which will modify the 13-year-old aircraft to meet the U.S. military specifications required for any aircraft used to transport the president of the United States, multiple sources familiar with the proposed arrangement said.
The plane will then be transferred to the Trump Presidential Library Foundation no later than Jan. 1, 2029, and any costs relating to its transfer will be paid for by the U.S. Air Force, the sources told ABC News.
The national security implications of this move are, how you say, real bad. But the corruption is also real bad! So bad that even some diehard MAGA folks acknowledge the utterly corrupt nature of this particular proposal. That Attorney General Pam Bondi was a lobbyist for Qatar prior to taking her current job just compounds the pervasive sense of corruption enveloping this particular proposal.
As the New York Times’ Charlie Savage notes, this is an egregious move even for this administration:
The administration’s plan to accept a $400 million luxury jet from the Qatari royal family is only the latest example of an increasingly no-holds-barred atmosphere in Washington under Trump 2.0. Not only would the famously transactional chief executive be able to use the plane while in office, but he is also expected to transfer it to his presidential foundation once he leaves the White House.
The second Trump administration is showing striking disdain for onetime norms of propriety and for traditional legal and political guardrails around public service. It is clearly emboldened, in part because of the Supreme Court’s ruling last year that granted immunity to presidents for their official actions and because of the political reality that Mr. Trump’s hold on the Republican Party means he need not fear impeachment.
Savage goes on to detail the obvious corruption inherent in Trump’s inauguration committee, his cryptocurrency schemes, and his weaponization of the Justice Department to secure pro bono legal work and bogus settlements.
The hard-working staff here at Drezner’s World has been enjoying Andor’s second and last season. In episode nine, a character says about the Empire’s increasingly illiberal actions: “They have no shame, do they? They don’t even bother to lie badly anymore. I suppose that’s the final humiliation.”
The Trump administration is still attempting to lie. But the attempts are so feeble that even the Ben Shapiros of the world recognize them to be crap. At this rate, by the end of the year the Trump administration will be embracing its racism and corruption openly. Because, clearly, they have no shame.
Until recently, out of caution I would have not have used the words corrupt and racist (well perhaps racist) in describing the Trump administration. Now I have to say it's the clear and simple truth.
And, you know, sooner or later they always get around to hating the Jews... Which, I think, Bibi may be discovering...