15 May—Among Donald Trump’s claims to fame is his proclivity for self-dealing. In fact, self-dealing, while not perhaps the pre-eminent component of Trump’s adult life—given his notorious bullying, cupidity, lust, mendacity, and narcissism—is one of the character traits that has made him what he is.

Take the deal announced yesterday for Qatar to buy “up to 210” (according to a White House press release) Boeing airplanes and GE aero engines for $94 billion or $200 billion, depending upon the source—and “an economic exchange worth at least $1.2 trillion” (according to the same White House press release).

What wasn’t announced—by the White House or anyone else—is what Trump personally is getting out of the deal. But who doesn’t know what the Qataris are giving “the dealmaker in chief” (as the White House press release calls him) to make the deal? Even though Donald Trump is the greatest, most patriotic super-patriot who ever lived, it’s just not in him to not profit from every deal he’s involved in.

It must be noted here that Trump’s big airplane deal is with Qatar Airways. Qatar Airways is owned by the Qatar government. The Qatar government is a semi-constitutional hereditary monarchy, the royal House of Thani since 1868. In a semi-constitutional monarchy, the monarch retains lots and lots of political power, even though his rule is defined and theoretically limited by a constitution. Sound familiar?

So even though the glitzed-up 747 that’s parked at San Antonio International Airport waiting for a Trump flunky to take possession is officially a gift to Donald Trump from the Qatari government, it’s actually in the private fleet—only one of the 747s and who knows what other extravagantly accoutered aircraft—of the Qatari royal family, having been bought new from Boeing in 2012 for $367 million (and then some to other contractors for the adventitious glitz) by Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, while he served as Qatar’s prime minister from 2007 to 2013.

It’s not being publicized by anyone that the Thani family are essentially dumping the 747 on Trump because they couldn’t sell it in 2020, like they had sold a similar one. And other Thani 747s are said to be mothballed.

Evidently Qatar and its royals aren’t alone in trying to dump extravagant aircraft for PR as well as economic reasons. The common touch, you know. We remember when nabobs, nawabs, potentates, and magnates had to outdo one another in palaces, yachts, cars, airplanes, women, and other extravagances in competitions that were essentially my-penis-is-bigger-than-yours matches. That probably ended about 15 years ago when a Saudi royal ordered a customized Airbus 380 (bigger than a 747, with the lower deck devoted to housing his cars) but reportedly couldn’t afford to take delivery. Or maybe his daddy wouldn’t let him.

So Trump should be insulted that his good friends in Qatar are practicing what a Dubai-based aviation consultant calls “a creative disposal strategy,” fobbing off unsellable rubbish on him. On the other hand, the glitz is his style in spades. And why should he care anyway? He won’t be paying a cent. The taxpayers will be footing all the bills for Trump’s commission from Qatar . . .