Trump's big beautiful Boeing from Qatar, and a trade war thaw

Post Reports

The Washington Post

Daily News, Politics, News

4.4 • 5.1K Ratings

🗓️ 15 May 2025

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

There are plenty of ethical and security questions surrounding the Trump administration’s plan to accept a gift of an airplane from Qatar.

Senior political reporter Aaron Blake talks with White House reporters Cleve R. Wootson Jr. and Natalie Allison about the proposal, and what it says about Trump’s evolving foreign policy in the Middle East.

Also, how the temporary trade deal between the U.S. and China came together.

Today’s show was produced by Laura Benshoff with help from Reena Flores. It was edited by Lucy Perkins and mixed by Sam Bair.

Subscribe to The Washington Post here.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	So, Cleve, I hear that you have some thoughts on traveling on Air Force One.
0:05.5	Yeah, I have a lot of thoughts.
0:06.8	Okay.
0:07.3	What you should understand is that complaining about Air Force One doesn't get you any brownie points anywhere.
0:13.1	Nobody wants to hear this.
0:14.4	Yeah, it's like, oh, you're on the president's plane and you're uncomfortable?
0:17.4	Yeah.
0:17.7	Oh, man, woe is me. But, you know,
0:22.5	the people out listening can't see me, but I am six foot three and not a small
0:24.6	person. And when I'm looking at
0:26.6	that Trump kind of wanting this new fangled
0:28.8	whatever plane, I'm just like, where
0:30.6	would my seat be?
0:33.1	Yeah, does it lie flat?
0:35.1	Cleave is in favor of
0:36.7	the $400 million gift from the Qatari government.
0:39.4	It sounds like that's what I'm hearing.
0:40.5	I think he's in favor of checking it out.
0:42.2	There's a monument clause for a reporter.
0:45.5	I'll go to whatever plush seat they put me in.
0:49.5	I hope there's a hot tub.
0:51.2	That's the one hope.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 17 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Washington Post, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Washington Post and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.