As Trump Courts Gifts and Dangles Access, Congress Sits on the Sidelines

New York Times

13-05-2025

The president stood accused of dangling exclusive access to the White House for big bucks. Members of Congress were duly outraged, with one prominent Republican assailing him for using 'probably one of the more sacrosanct places in America' to rake in cash. Months of high-profile congressional hearings ensued.
That was in 1997, when President Bill Clinton came under scrutiny for inviting campaign donors to stay overnight in the White House's famed Lincoln Bedroom, prompting a firestorm around claims that he was shamelessly exploiting the presidency.
Nearly three decades later, President Trump has drawn accusations of corruption and self-dealing for publicly flirting with accepting a $400 million luxury jet from Qatar and promising an exclusive country club dinner and White House tour for the largest buyers of his crypto coin, one of many financial exploits enriching him and his family.
But the Republicans who control Congress aren't rushing to convene investigative committees just yet. As is often the case when Mr. Trump's actions or words put him squarely in the middle of a controversy, top G.O.P. lawmakers are in no hurry to question the president or amplify the criticism.
'This is a hypothetical,' the Senate majority leader, John Thune of South Dakota, said on Tuesday when asked if he was comfortable with the gifting of the jet. Should the matter move beyond the hypothetical stage, he said, 'I can assure you there will be plenty of scrutiny of whatever that arrangement might look like.'
To those who were caught up years ago in the frenzy over the Lincoln Bedroom, the acceptance of Mr. Trump's activities within his own party is discouraging to say the least.
'Where is the hue and cry?' Terry McAuliffe, a close Clinton friend and leading fund-raiser for his presidential campaigns who later became governor of Virginia, asked about Mr. Trump. 'It is just astounding to me the double standard that goes on.'
At the moment, most of the criticism is coming from Democrats, such as the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer of New York, who said on Tuesday that he would block all Justice Department political nominees until Mr. Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi answered questions about the jet. His move could slow the consideration of dozens of top department officials, as well as federal prosecutors and marshals.
Mr. Schumer called Mr. Trump's suggestion that he would accept the plane 'so corrupt that even Putin would give a double take,' referring to the Russian leader, Vladimir V. Putin.
'And how are Republicans responding?' he asked. 'With silence.'
There has been some noise, though, from members of the G.O.P. expressing unease about the arrangement.
'If Qatar gives a plane to the president of the United States, it seems to me that raises questions of whether the administration would be in compliance with the gift law,' said Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, one of the few current senators who also served at the time of the Clinton fund-raising hearings, and one of the few in her party who dares to challenge Mr. Trump.
In an interview on Fox News, Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, said he did not 'think it's a good idea' to accept the plane, adding that there was an 'appearance of impropriety.'
Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, raised national security concerns about the Qatari jet, noting the gulf nation's backing of Hamas and Hezbollah.
'I also think the plane poses significant espionage and surveillance problems,' he told CNBC. 'So we'll see how this issue plays out — but I certainly have concerns.'
Even some of Mr. Trump's most ardent conservative allies in the MAGA world, such as the far-right activist Laura Loomer and the podcaster Ben Shapiro, have said Mr. Trump should reconsider the gift given the donor country's record on human rights.
Other Republicans eagerly sided with Mr. Trump, who said earlier that it would be stupid to refuse such a gift considering it would potentially save American taxpayers money.
'I'm all for it,' said Senator Tommy Tuberville, Republican of Alabama. 'If they offer him a plane — the ones we got, it costs a fortune to keep going.'
Gifts and efforts to cash in on the White House have long been a touchy subject, and lesser instances have led to serious repercussions.
In a famous 1958 episode, Sherman Adams, chief of staff to President Dwight D. Eisenhower, was forced to resign after the revelation that he had accepted a vicuña overcoat and expensive rug from a New England friend with business interests before federal agencies. Mr. Eisenhower was reluctant to let him go, but go he did.
'As a result of this entire incident, all of us in America should have been made aware of one truth: this is that a gift is not necessarily a bribe,' Mr. Eisenhower told reporters.
The Clinton fund-raising investigation was prompted by revelations that some of Mr. Clinton's significant donors had been treated to overnight stays in the revered Lincoln Bedroom and had been invited to White House coffees and golf outings. The revelations led to demands for a special counsel, though Attorney General Janet Reno refused to appoint one.
Mr. Clinton insisted he had done nothing wrong and said that while the overnight guests may have been high-powered contributors who gave millions of dollars to his campaigns, they were also his friends.
'I did not have any strangers here,' Mr. Clinton said at a February 1997 White House news conference. 'The Lincoln Bedroom was never sold. That was one more false story we have had to endure, and the facts will show what the truth is.'
Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican and later presidential candidate who was a leading proponent of tighter campaign finance rules, said that nonetheless he was disappointed in the president.
'The president of the United States, in seeking to raise money for his re-election, was willing to use the Lincoln Bedroom, probably one of the more sacrosanct places in America, in order to gain those financial funds which he felt were necessary,' Mr. McCain said.
Republicans who controlled the Senate convened months of hearings by the Governmental Affairs Committee, which in the end produced dueling Republican and Democratic findings that fund-raising activities pursued by both parties were ethically questionable, though not illegal. That report, and one by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, did help spur approval of Mr. McCain's campaign finance overhaul about four years later.
Mr. McAuliffe noted that for all the claims and insinuations that swirled around the Lincoln Bedroom matter, there was never a hint that Mr. Clinton was trying to personally profit during his White House years.
By contrast, Mr. Trump's conduct has drawn allegations of corruption since even before he began his first term, when he refused to divest from his vast business holdings when he assumed the presidency. His recent activities, including the launch of the $TRUMP memecoin that allows investors around the world to enrich him and his family, have gone much further.
'Nobody said that the Clintons in the White House enriched themselves,' Mr. McAuliffe said. 'He left office broke, broke, broke.'