Over the weekend, the news broke that President Donald Trump is accepting a luxury jet from the country of Qatar for presidential travel. This extraordinarily brazen act may well violate the Constitution’s emoluments clause, which bars foreign gifts to officials unless expressly authorized by Congress. It comes even as Trump is embarking on a Mideast trip to countries that are the sites of Trump-branded projects and as Trump-aligned businesses are scooping in huge sums from foreign governments via crypto. We talked about all this with Representative Jamie Raskin, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. He powerfully explains why Trump’s latest move is an “outrageous abuse” of the law, how his corruption has grown to “epic” and unprecedented proportions, and what concrete moves Democrats will now employ to pressure Republicans over this fiasco. Listen to this episode here. A transcript is here.
PODCAST
Jamie Raskin’s Harsh Takedown of Trump’s Qatar Plane Scam Draws Blood
As Trump corruptly accepts a $400 million luxury jet as a gift from Qatar, Representative Jamie Raskin explains why this is an “outrageous abuse” of the Constitution—and what Democrats will do now.

Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Representative Jamie Raskin in Washington, D.C., on May 8