The President has skipped Canada, the UK, Ireland and the rest of Europe for his first overseas tour – heading straight to where the money is. Or at least the free luxury jets. Here’s everything you need to know
Donald Trump has jetted off on his first proper overseas tour today.
But (after a brief stop in the UK to refuel), he hasn’t chosen his closest neighbours – Mexico and Canada – for a visit.
Nor has he chosen the UK, Ireland, or any of the European nations. You know, his “allies”.
Nope, he’s gone straight to where the money is. Or at least the free luxury jets.
Meanwhile, he compounded the greatest u-turn in history by backing down on his China tariffs.
And he rolled out the red carpet for 50 white South Africans as “refugees” fleeing an imaginary “genocide.”
Here’s all that and more wild and unhinged things that happened in Trump world in the last day or so.
1. Trump blinked in his trade war with China
After days of signalling he was going to perform a screeching u-turn on his 145% tariff on goods from China, Trump finally confirmed it in an executive order last night.
For (another) 90 days, the tariff rate on goods from China will come down from 145% to 30%, while China agreed to cut its retaliatory tariff from 125% to 10%.
There’s also cuts to tariffs on small packages – like those from Shein, AliExpress and Temu – from 120% to 54%.
“The biggest thing to me is the opening up,” Trump told reporters last night.
“I think it would be fantastic for our businesses if we could go in and compete.”
So much for “trade wars are good and easy to win.”
2. He accepted a massive bribe from a ‘terror funding’ country – then got mad when people questioned it
Over the weekend, Donald Trump indicated he was going to accept a gift of a luxury Boeing 747 from Qatar.
In all likelihood the jet will never be Air Force One during Trump’s presidency – it would have to be taken apart bit by bit by the security services to ensure it’s not bugged, tampered with or full of Greeks ready to infiltrate the city of Troy. That takes years for a jet that hasn’t been given to us by a foreign power, let alone one from Qatar, a state that has historically “been a funder of terrorism at a very high level.”
Not my words, but the words of President Donald Trump way back in 2017, before they offered him a free plane.
And the jet, Trump says, won’t be gifted to the nation, but will end up the property of the Trump Foundation, the body that is in charge of his presidential library after his term. So yeah. It’s a gift for him.
So how is Trump justifying this (according to Democrat Senator Brian Schatz) “wildly corrupt” emolument?
Well, he’s having a meltdown about the media, of course.
Asked by ABC News what he would say to people who think the jet is a personal gift for him, he said: “You’re ABC fake news, right? Only ABC…well a few of you would. You should be embarrassed to ask that question.”
He then went on a long and rambling analogy about being offered a “putt” in golf – and why you should always take the win rather than actually taking the shot – suggesting turning down the jet would be “stupid”.
3. Trump called a press conference to sign an executive order – then wandered off before signing it
Trump called a press conference last night, the whole point of which was to publicly sign his executive order on drug pricing.
After waffling for a while, he thanked everyone very much and started to walk off.
Then someone had to tell him he’d forgotten to sign the order and he came back.
You’ve got to wonder what the response would have been like if Biden did something like this…
4. The first Afrikaners ‘refugees’ arrived…
The first 50 Afrikaners ‘refugees’ from South Africa arrived in the US yesterday.
You see, Trump paused all refugee admittance to the United States – with the exception of one group: White South Africans.
Why is he doing this? Well, he appears to have misread – or been, ahem, misinformed – about a new law that allows the South African government to take land from private parties if it’s in the public interest and under certain conditions.
It’s basically compulsory purchase, which we’ve had in the UK for centuries. And in fact, the new law is mostly to clarify powers the government had already.
But Trump, from somewhere, has got the idea that the South African government is doing “terrible things” and confiscating land from “certain classes.”
“Because they’re being killed,” he said in the Oval Office yesterday.
“And we don’t want to see people be killed … it’s a genocide that’s taking place. Farmers are being killed. They happen to be white.
To be clear, nobody is being killed and no land has been confiscated.
But groups representing parts of the white minority, who say it will target them and their land even though race is not mentioned in the law.
The law is tied to the legacy of the racist apartheid system, and colonialism before that, and is part of South Africa’s efforts over decades to try and find a way to right historic wrongs.
Under apartheid, Black people had land taken away from them and were forced to live in designated areas for non-whites. Now, whites make up around 7% of South Africa’s population of 62 million but own approximately 70% of the private farming land, and the government says that inequality needs to be addressed.
Afrikaners are a group of white South Africans descended mainly from Dutch settlers who arrived around 370 years ago. They speak Afrikaans, one of South Africa’s 11 official languages, and make up many of South Africa’s rural farming communities.
Afrikaners were at the heart of the apartheid regime, and tensions between some Afrikaner groups and Black political parties have lingered after apartheid, although South Africa has largely been successful in reconciling its many racial groups and most Afrikaners consider themselves part of the new South Africa.
So…why is he doing this?
Well, Elon Musk was born and raised in South Africa but left after high school in the late 1980s, when South Africa was still under the apartheid regime.
We don’t know for sure he’s nobbling the President about it.
But he has for years criticised the current leadership in his homeland, accusing them of anti-white policies and ignoring or even encouraging a “genocide” with regards to the killings of some white farmers. Those killings are at the centre of claims by conservative commentators — and now amplified by Trump and Musk — that South Africa is allowing attacks on white farmers as a means to remove them.
The South African government has condemned the killings and says they are part of the country’s desperately high violent crime rates across the board. Experts say there is no evidence of genocide and the killings make up a very small percentage of homicides. For example, a group that records farm attacks says 49 farmers or their families were killed in 2023, while there were more than 27,000 homicides in the country that year.
5. They were met at the airport by a Trump administration official – who basically confirmed the refugee policy is racist
Asked why everyone but white Afrikaners have been denied refugee status, Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau – who the administration dispatched to the airport to meet the new arrivals – said the quiet part out loud.
Trump’s talk of a “genocide” of white people in South Africa is an age-old racist dogwhistle.
But Landau made the subtext….text.
“[The pause on refugee admissions] was subject to exceptions where it would be in the interests of the United States,” he told the BBC.
“Some of the criteria are making sure refugees do not pose any challenge to our national security, and that they can be assimilated easily into our country.”
Yikes.
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6. He told an anecdote about a curiously specific anonymous “friend”
At the press conference he told a little anecdote about a “friend” who uses Ozempic …that seemed a little close to the bone.
“A friend of mine who is a businessman. Very very very top guy. Most of you would’ve heard of him. Highly neurotic. Brilliant businessman,” he said, without naming the famous, neurotic businessman.
He went on to say the businessman was “seriously overweight. And he takes the fat shot drug. And he called me up and he said “President” – he calls me President, he used to call me Donald, now he calls me President. So that’s nice respect, but he’s a rough guy, smart guy, very successful, very rich…he says “can I ask you a question? I’m in London and I just paid for this damn fat drug I take.””
“And I said “It’s not working.” And he said: “I just paid $88 – and in New York I pay $1,300, what the hell is going on?”
7. He claims he stopped the fighting between India and Pakistan by saying ‘come on, guys’
Asked what was the key to getting India and Pakistan to stop fighting, Trump said: “We helped a lot. I said, ‘C’mon… We’re gonna do a lot of trade with you guys. Let’s stop it.
“Let’s stop it. If you stop it we’re doing trade. If you don’t stop it we’re not gonna do any trade.’
“People have never really used trade the way I used it.”