OOF! CNN Analyst Says Trump ‘Looks Like The Beta’ For Taking $400M Plane
CNN analyst Nia-Malika Henderson hit President Donald Trump with one of the worst MAGA insults when she said he “looks like the beta” for accepting a controversial multimillion-dollar gift from Qatar.
Trump is currently on a four-day swing through the Persian Gulf region with stops in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, which has been dogged by the controversy over his eager acceptance of a $400 million “flying palace” from Qatar to serve as Air Force One.
The president and his administration insist it’s not “bribery,” while critics from every quarter — including staunch MAGA allies — have denounced the move.
But on Wednesday’s edition of CNN’s Inside Politics, Henderson put a news spin on the criticism by calling it out as a weak move:
KRISTEN HOLMES: There’s also this level of almost exactly what he said, which is what people are concerned about. You know, he’s saying that Qataris came to him and said, if we can help you, let us. I mean, that’s exactly what people are afraid of because it means, what are we getting in return? What are they going to get in return, which he seems to fundamentally not either want to answer or not really understand. The level that people are concerned about this as a national security threat when he continues to just say, well, it’s a free gift. You can hear these Republicans say over and over again, there’s no such thing as a free gift. I mean, that’s been the Republican argument as well.
MANU RAJU: Yeah, in the Republicans, John Thune, I asked him about this yesterday, about national security concerns. He said, well, we’re going to have to vet this, and he called it a hypothetical situation. And then I asked Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House about it yesterday, he said, well, Trump, of course, shares the same national security concerns that we do, and he’ll make sure this is a secure exchange.
HANS NICHOLS: Well, look, stripping down the plane and making sure there are any hidden microphones on there, I, as someone who’s never retrofitted a 747, that doesn’t seem like- Yeah, not yet. The day is young. That doesn’t seem like the biggest challenge here.
To me, the bigger question is, will Thune and Johnson follow through and do real oversight? You know, Ted Cruz, chairman of the, you know, Senate Commerce Committee, does he look into this? Like, these are going, like-.
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON: I’m guessing no. (LAUGHTER)
HANS NICHOLS: Right? I think we sort of know, but that’s really where, if this story advances beyond sort of liberal outrage and some sort of Republican concerns, that’s really what will happen. It’ll happen where you and I spend most of our days on Congress. And I’m not convinced that we’re going to have big hearings looking into this. As long as Republicans, here’s my caveat, as long as Republicans are in charge, that’s my parachute.
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON: Yeah, it also sort of makes Donald Trump look like the beta, right? And the country. We’re going across the world because we’re too poor to get a plane from somebody else.
I mean, this is Trump, who’s like, “we’re a superpower,” and yet we’re taking handouts from Qatar and authoritarian nations.
So that in and of itself, just sort of the optics of it, is really, I think, contradicting what Trump’s sort of idea of America is and the, himself as likethe great salesmen in bringing America back to greatness. Well, if our greatness is relying on another country’s largesse, it seems to be a contradiction.
HANS NICHOLS: Yeah, but he’s just gonna say he’s getting a good deal, right? He’s already said that, right, I mean, I like it’s a good…
KRISTEN HOLMES: I think he’d say the opposite that he’s getting the deal because he’s the alpha–
Watch above via CNN’s Inside Politics.
