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This weekend was a fascinating case study in the ongoing dance between Donald Trump and the American media that he loathes/needs, as well as the president’s preternatural ability to step on his own good news. Let’s untangle it.
Since Friday, the White House has seen a handful of legitimate successes—or at least progress, maybe even luck—on a number of fronts. Scott Bessent’s jaunt to Geneva to open trade talks with China appears to have borne fruit, with both sides announcing what amounts to a temporary truce in the trade war. Washington and Beijing agreed to unwind most of the tariffs imposed since April for 90 days while the two sides seek to negotiate a more durable trade deal. This is great news, and the market is ripping on it.
The administration also helped broker a (very fragile) ceasefire between India and Pakistan, another win. And it got Hamas to agree to release the last remaining American hostage as a gesture to Trump before he visits the Mideast this week. Amazing! I saw Trump getting some flack from the Israeli right for engaging directly with Hamas while sidelining Bibi—their fraying relationship being another story we need to wade into this week—but good for the POTUS for ignoring all that and getting this guy, Edan Alexander, the hell out of there after 550 days. This is actually America First.
One might even argue there’s been some progress on the Ukraine-Russia front, with Putin agreeing to hold direct talks with Zelensky for the first time. But Putin has ignored Trump’s proposal that those talks come with a 30-day ceasefire, so I think it’s too early to declare this a win and is more likely Putin continuing to string everyone along. Still, it’s movement. I’ll take it.
Not bad for a random weekend in May, right? Oh right, I forgot the two other items that are driving the news today and will end up burying all of the progress noted above.
The first is that the president plans to accept a “donation” of a $400 million, super-lux 747 from the royal family of Qatar that Trump intends to use as Air Force One before it will reportedly be sent to live out its days at his presidential library (ie. become the Trump family’s personal plane).
Qatar, where women have to get permission from their male guardians to do things like go to college, and where a non-zero number of their nationals have been sanctioned by our government for their ties to ISIS and Qaeda terror financing, has been trying to whitewash its reputation for a while. They now host the biggest US military base in the region, for instance. But the Qataris also harbor Hamas leaders, letting them live in luxury in Doha while the rest of the Palestinians starve, and financially support the group responsible for 10/7. They ain’t our friends, no matter how much they pretend to be “mediators” in the Mideast.
The fact that the president is going to paint UNITED STATES OF AMERICA on the side of a retrofitted jumbo jet given as a bribe from a country that has provided at minimum safe haven for Islamic terrorist groups—and then keeping the plane for himself—is so revolting, so beyond the pale, it’s no wonder this is the story everyone is talking about. By the way, if you’re wondering how this is legal (lol), don’t worry, it was signed off by Pam Bondi, the attorney general who happens to have been a registered lobbyist for Qatar! Nothing to see here, folks.
In trying to deflect attention from that mess of naked corruption, Trump also announced last night he would sign an EO today intended to lower prescription drug prices by tying them to what other countries pay. This is also classic Trump: raising an interesting and worthwhile question—why do we pay so much more than other countries for prescription drugs, most of which are made by American companies?—with an answer that amounts to something out of Bernie Sanders’ platform.
So now progressives will tie themselves in knots explaining why they don’t support price controls, while conservatives will bend over backwards to pretend like they do support a policy that, if any Dem proposed, they would blast as something out of Maoist China. But none of it will matter because this is obviously unconstitutional, the POTUS can’t set prices by executive fiat. So some pharma group will sue, a judge will enjoin it, your drug prices will never actually go down, and around we go!
China, US Slash Trade Tariffs in 90-Day Deal
China and the U.S. have agreed to pause their reciprocal tariffs for 90 days, with both sides bringing their rates down by 115 percentage points, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said following talks in Switzerland. “We had very robust discussions, both sides showed great respect,” Bessent said at a Monday briefing. Here’s the latest from Geneva.
Related: US Futures, Global Stock Markets Climb After US-China Trade Announcement
Also happening:
- US-Iran nuclear talks: Iran and the U.S. concluded a tense fourth round of nuclear negotiations on Sunday in Oman, with President Donald Trump threatening military action if a deal is not reached. The three-hour meeting took place just days before Trump’s Tuesday visit to the Middle East and against the backdrop of tensions over Iran’s growing stockpile of near-weapons-grade uranium. Read more.
- New order to cut drug prices: President Donald Trump is set to sign an executive order Monday that he says will dramatically lower prescription drug prices—by 30 to 80 percent—in the U.S. by tying them to the lowest price paid by any country in the world. Read more about the executive order.
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