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National Post

Kelly McParland: Trump behaving like a self-serving monarch

For a guy who peddled glossy golden high-top sneakers and a line of superhero trading cards bearing his image during his run for the presidency, accepting a 'free' US$400 million flying palace from a foreign country eager for his favour is just another day at the office for Donald Trump. Article content Article content In Trump's case, the office is the White House, and the luxury jet he's been offered by the Qatari government is just more evidence of the high favour in which he's held around the world, according to official spokespeople. That the Trump family business is building a luxury golf and beachside residential development in Qatar in a deal including a company owned by the Qatari government is beside the point. As is the fact the president is accepting the gift from a foreign power while prosecuting a tariff war launched on the premise that Americans should do their business with fellow Americans — for the sake of the nation — rather than favouring unAmerican competitors. Article content Doesn't matter. In a country where each new day starts with another headline about the latest capers in the Oval Office, it's just another big ho-hum. Remember last week when he wanted to tariffize the movies, as if anyone could define precisely what made a film American when virtually every such venture involves input from around the globe? Or the sudden need to rescue white people from South Africa, where they make up just eight per cent of the population but own 75 per cent of the private land? Article content Article content What's notable about the Qatari commotion is not that it's worse than any other hundred-or-so Trumpian brouhahas, but how little these episodes disturb the placid surface of American indifference. As the president was welcoming the exceedingly generous freebie from an authoritarian monarchy where political parties are banned, his Republican disciples in Congress were releasing their plans to slash up to US$880 billion in spending, largely targeted at the Medicaid program that provides health coverage to low-income adults, children, pregnant women, the elderly and people with disabilities. Article content Article content The Congressional Budget Office calculates the plan would remove coverage for about eight million people who can't afford their own. New costs would be imposed on those earning above the federal poverty level, which starts at US$1,300 a month for individuals. Article content Article content The disparity between the president's good fortune and that of his flock, many of them no doubt firm Maga-ites, was noted, but caused no serious disturbance. And no wonder, it's not like anything's changed. Article content The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the richest 19 households in the U.S. gained an extra US$1 trillion in wealth last year. More, it said, than Switzerland's entire economy. The country's top 1 per cent now hold 31 per cent of its wealth, against 3 per cent for the bottom half of the population. From outside its borders, the U.S. may bear a worrying resemblance to the Bourbon nobility just before the French Revolution, but within its walls, America's aristocracy appears perfectly safe. The last time Americans stormed anything, it was in support of the very administration — all covered by generous, subsidized health benefits — that demands they start paying their own way for doctor visits.