If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

If a president accepts a half-a-billion-dollar bribe in broad daylight and no one in his party objects, is it still corrupt?

The answer to both questions is “yes.” If there’s any such thing as objective truth, then the acceptance by the president of the United States of the Qatari offer of a “palace in the sky” Boeing 747—not only for use as his Air Force One but then, post-presidency, for his and his family’s personal use—is staggeringly corrupt. That most of the GOP responded with deafening silence doesn’t mean there’s no “cha-ching” somewhere in the distance. Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social that the plane was a “GIFT, FREE OF CHARGE” and that it was only the “Crooked Democrats” who wanted America to have to pay “TOP DOLLAR.” Only a “stupid person” would turn down a gift, he added.

Note the classic demagogic twist: In Trump’s mind, the Democrats are corrupt for pushing back against bribery and a clear violation of the emoluments clause, while Trump himself is riding in on a white horse—or rather, flying in on a white plane—to rescue a decayed Republic.

In reality, of course, there’s no such thing as a free lunch—or a free $500 million plane. Trump, who has spent the past several days in the Middle East shoring up business deals, is now in hock to the Qatari royal family. A CNN investigation recently found that Trump family business ties to the middle east have more than tripled since Trump’s first tenure in office, with a swirl of deal-making around luxury real estate developments, golf courses, and cryptocurrency, including a Trump-branded golf course in—surprise, surprise—Qatar, with investors including the country’s sovereign wealth fund. This is as classic a quid pro quo as anything in US history. You can practically see the Qatari government officials girding themselves to scratch the Orange Man’s back.

During Trump 1.0, the House of Representatives impeached Trump—for the first time—for appearing to ask political favors of Ukraine’s leader in exchange for military aid. Scott Pruit, the ethically challenged EPA secretary, was ultimately forced to resign under a cloud of investigations surrounding his relationships with lobbyists.

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During Trump 2.0, while some GOP senators have distanced themselves from the Qatari deal, many have twisted themselves in knots to justify the unjustifiable. So long as there are GOP majorities in both houses of Congress, there will almost certainly be no serious action taken against this open-air corruption.

True, reliably Trumpist senators like Rick Scott, Josh Hawley, and Ted Cruz have criticized the gift—but none of them would seriously consider censuring or, if the House impeached him, convicting the president. And this version of the House wouldn’t impeach the president in a million years. After all, they stood by silently when he turned the White House lawn into a backdrop for a Tesla sales pitch. They didn’t lift a finger while Elon Musk carried on his self-dealing in his capacity as DOGE commandante-cum-world’s-richest-man. And they looked the other way when Trump announced he would grant personal access to the biggest investors in his meme coin scam.

In fact, many GOP politicians have happily followed Trump down this particular rabbit hole. Tommy Tuberville, the Alabama Trumpophile who may ultimately go down in history as the stupidest of all US Senators, opined that “free is good. You know, we don’t have a lot of money right now to buy things like that.” Yes, that’s right—according to Tuberville, the US government, which spends $7 trillion per year, and which presides over a $30 trillion economy, can’t really afford a single airplane for its commander in chief, and has to go hat in hand to allies to scrounge up a free ride. His colleague Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin said he had “zero issue” with the gift. Meanwhile, House leaders have stayed silent. When asked his opinion, Speaker Johnson told reporters he had no comment.

Ironically, hard-right Laura Loomer has become one of the few to come out fighting against the deal, calling it a “stain” on the Trump presidency. And in the hierarchy of the right-wing commentariat, as Howard Kurz put it on Fox News’s Media Buzz, “If you’ve lost Loomer, you’re losing the argument.”

MAGA has always been more a cult than a genuine drain-the-swamp political movement. It’s always claimed to be about restoring integrity to a broken political system, yet it has consistently made its peace with the most nakedly corrupt actions of America’s grifter in chief.

This time around may be different. While the GOP-led Congress will do nothing beyond letting out a few tut-tuts, on-the-ground influencers seem to be finally roused to anger by this particular example of the con.

If Laura Loomer, of all people, can recognize this for the corruption it is, how on earth can the GOP’s congressional leaders simply sit back and watch the clown show gather steam?