But is this case, him and his friends are getting a cut too! Our tax dollars at work.
Except that the current plan is that he gets to keep the plane after he leaves office. Technically, it’s supposed to be transferred to his Presidential Library, but we all know that means he would take it as his personal property. The entire thing is highly illegal. Even if it were accepted as a gift to the US Government, accepting a gift of that magnitude requires Congressional approval, and they have not done so.
The good news is that even a good portion of MAGA is upset about this, including Laura Loomer. Of course, their objection is not the bribe itself, but the source of it, but still . . . they seem to be objecting to this. That might give Congressional Republicans the safety to stop it. Maybe.
It is very easy to confuse state gifts with personal gifts. Who has never forgotten to return something that did not belong to them?
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/05/world/americas/brazil-bolsonaro-police-embezzlement.html
How does that fucking work?
Maybe in the court of public opinion?
Nah, not with his polling numbers.
Way ahead of you.
I would say that John Roberts is finding out that if you lie down with dogs … except that’s insulting to dogs and fleas.
They’re trying to argue that the Administrative Office of the United States Courts and the Judicial Conference of the United States, but not the actual courts themselves, should be considered executive branch agencies. The first group provides a wide range of support services for the federal court system. IT support, legislative information, budget services, all that boring day-to-day business of operating a judicial system, outside of the stuff that goes on in a courtroom or in judges’ chambers. It would be a bit like saying that your company’s office manager actually works for one of your sister companies. The second group manages the first. The Judicial Conference is comprised of the Chief Justice of the United States (John Roberts), the chief judge of each court of appeals, several district court judges, and the chief judge of the US Court of International Trade. Claiming that the first body should be considered an executive branch agency is a stretch, but I could see arguments for it. They would be bad arguments, but I can envision them. Claiming that the second body should be considered an executive branch agency is pure lunacy. That would make Donald Trump John Roberts’s direct boss. It would be a massive violation of separation of powers. Not only aren’t there any reasonable arguments for doing this, there aren’t really even any unreasonable ones. The only argument for doing this is that you want the US to be a dictatorship.
Mainly because he’s been (allowed to) rule by EO decree.
Which, as everyone here already knows, are not laws and don’t carry any more force than your work’s lunch menu, but are being treated as stone tablets found on the mountain near a smoldering bush.
Which is incredibly lazy on his part. He’s got an extremely cooperative majority in both houses of Congress, and if he wanted to cement more of his agenda into laws that are harder to challenge in court he’ll probably never have a better opportunity to do so. But his laziness is a benefit in this case.
But not a supermajority in the Senate. Dems could block most legislation, when they are so inclined. Also, in the House, if a couple of Republicans don’t show up for a vote, or decide to cross the aisle, then that legislation wouldn’t pass. So he has an extremely cooperative, but razor thin, majority.
But really, this isn’t laziness. This is Project 2025. They want to cement the idea of the unitary executive. This is the whole point, and the whole ballgame, if they succeed.
Has Trumpy ever been awake at 9 am?
I get the feeling that cooperation doesn’t extend to putting their names on bills (or a record of their votes) supporting some of his agenda. Some are still concerned about elections in 2026.
I’ll have to review it again to confirm the role / existence of Congress in that plan. GOP pols are protecting their own positions of power and invested in having a useful idiot to blame for all of the unpopular policies of the regime. We know they could stop this if they wanted to, but a large percentage the base supporting 
is still reportedly willing to believe in him. So the lies that he’s unstoppable and all of these policies are exclusively his idea works in their favor. Losing their seats, money, and influence doesn’t seem like something they would support.