Welcome to the beat. I'm Ari Melbert. As mentioned, we have a big show coming up, but we begin right now with something striking. A revolt over President Trump's quote, corruption tour of the Middle East. That's what people are calling it, including longtime Republican allies of Donald Trump. So this is where we start on the right. The National Review, one of the most

conservative magazines out there, says it's a plain old grift. It's a poison plane. And welcome to the

swamp now under new management. That's a taste of what you might call the intellectual side

of conservative politics right now, writers, editors at a place known for supporting the MAGA agenda

on many issues, including crackdowns on immigration, saying enough is enough when it comes to this

kind of what they call grift. Trump is making his first foreign trip of this second term, but it's being

overshadowed by his plain debacle. Indeed, for some,

it's hard to watch him dismount from the U.S. made Air Force One without thinking of his plan

to personally pocket a foreign-created Air Force One if that plan continues to get off the ground.

This was him landing in Saudi Arabia. Separately, the Trump family organization continues

to pursue billions of dollars in real estate and associated deals in that country and region.

He's greeted by their leader there, but the outrage is dwarfing the trip because leading into

the trip, first with journalistic reporting and then with the president confirming

it, so there's no debate, no contested story here, the news has broken that Trump wants to take a

$400 million luxury jumbo jet from a foreign country of Qatar. You're seeing some of the inside

luxurious accommodations here as it stands.

This would be then further updated and retrofitted as an American Air Force one.

Qatar is where he's headed tomorrow.

Conservatives, independence, and certainly opposition party Democrats all seem to agree on

this story of the Trump era, that this is a kind of brazen profiteering.

Here's Murdoch's Wall Street Journal, of course the sister outlet to Fox News, quote,

Trump sends message to the world he's open for business. Over at the New York Times,

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