{"id":137977,"date":"2025-05-19T07:25:01","date_gmt":"2025-05-19T07:25:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-news-at-a-glance-president-faces-intensifying-criticism-over-qatar-plane-gift-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2025-05-19T07:25:01","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T07:25:01","slug":"trump-news-at-a-glance-president-faces-intensifying-criticism-over-qatar-plane-gift-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-news-at-a-glance-president-faces-intensifying-criticism-over-qatar-plane-gift-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump news at a glance: president faces intensifying criticism over Qatar plane gift – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Top Democrat condemns \u2018flying grift\u2019 as senior Republicans join chorus of disapproval \u2013 key US politics stories from Sunday 18 May at a glance
Donald Trump is coming under increasing pressure for accepting a $400m luxury plane<\/a> from Qatar as several senior Republicans join the chorus of criticism.
Leading Democratic Chris Murphy on Sunday called it the \u201cdefinition of corruption\u201d, while even some of Trump\u2019s close allies have been enraged<\/a>, with some saying it was the opposite of Trump\u2019s promise to drain the swamp and was \u201ca stain on the administration\u201d.
Trump lashed out at the critics on Saturday, claiming the gift was to the US and not for him personally. Murphy later told NBC that was not true.
Meanwhile, some lawyers are starting their own law firms and challenging the Trump administration\u2019s effort to cut funding and punish civil servants as the president wages a broad attack on the justice department<\/a> and major law firms<\/a>.
Here are the key stories at a glance:
Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s acceptance of a $400m Boeing jet<\/a> from Qatar<\/a> is the \u201cdefinition of corruption\u201d, a top Democrat said on Sunday, as several senior Republicans joined in a bipartisan fusillade of criticism and concern over the luxury gift.
Chris Murphy, a Democratic senator for Connecticut<\/a>, condemned the \u201cflying grift<\/a>\u201d on NBC as he assailed the president\u2019s trip to several Gulf states<\/a> this week that included a stop in Qatar.
Rand Paul, a Republican US senator for Kentucky and chair of his chamber\u2019s homeland security committee, told the ABC that the gift of the jet \u201cat least gives the appearance of a conflict of interest\u201d.
Read the full story<\/sub><\/a>
As Trump wages a blunt attack on major law firms<\/a> and the justice department<\/a>, some lawyers are starting their own law firms and challenging the administration\u2019s effort to cut funding and punish civil servants.
The decision to start the firms come as the judiciary has emerged as a major bulwark against the Trump administration. More than 200 lawsuits<\/a> have been filed challenging various Trump administration policies and there have been more than 70 rulings blocking the administration from executing various policies.
Read the full story<\/sub><\/a>
The US retail company Walmart<\/a> will \u201ceat some of the tariffs\u201d in line with Trump\u2019s demands, the president\u2019s treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, has insisted, claiming he received the assurance in a personal phone call with the company\u2019s chief executive, Doug McMillon.
Walmart said last week it had no alternative to raising prices for consumers<\/a> beginning later this month because it could not absorb the cost of the president\u2019s tariffs on international trade. The statement provoked an angry response from Trump<\/a>, who said on Saturday the company should \u201ceat the tariffs and not charge valued customers anything\u201d.
According to Bessent, speaking on Sunday to NBC\u2019s Meet the Press, Walmart is now promising exactly that.
Read the full story<\/sub><\/a>
A proposed rule change making it easier to fire civil servants deemed to be \u201cintentionally subverting presidential directives\u201d could pave the way for the White House to fire statisticians employed to produce objective data on the economy but whose figures prove politically inconvenient, experts warn.
With Trump under pressure to explain shrinking gross domestic product (GDP) figures amid economists\u2019 warnings that tariffs could trigger a recession, the administration could use new employment rules to pressure workers into \u201ccooking the books\u201d.
Read the full story<\/sub><\/a>
Donald Trump is becoming impatient with Vladimir Putin<\/a>, Finland\u2019s president has said after a lengthy conversation with his US counterpart.
Alexander Stubb said Trump and Putin, who are scheduled to speak<\/a> by phone on Monday, must not decide the fate of Ukraine<\/a> over the head of its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Stubb said: \u201cIf we were to pull it together, we could say that Zelenskyy is patient and President Trump is starting to be impatient, but in the right direction, that is, towards Russia.\u201d
Read the full story<\/sub><\/a>
Former US president Joe Biden has been diagnosed with an \u201caggressive form\u201d of prostate cancer<\/a> that has spread to his bones, his office announced on Sunday, and he and his family are considering options for treatment. Donald Trump expressed concern on behalf of himself and first lady Melania Trump.
US government debt may come under more pressure this week<\/a> after the credit rating agency Moody\u2019s stripped the US of its top-notch triple-A rating.
Catching up? Here\u2019s what happened 17 May 2025<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Top Democrat condemns \u2018flying grift\u2019 as senior Republicans join chorus of disapproval \u2013 key US politics stories from Sunday 18 May at a glanceDonald Trump is coming under increasing pressure for accepting a $400m luxury plane from Qatar as several senior Republicans join the chorus of criticism.Leading Democratic Chris Murphy on Sunday called it the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":137978,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-137977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}