The Qataris Gave Trump an Airplane. He Crippled Their Country in Return.

Donald Trump really wanted the plane. The Qataris had flown the $400 million Boeing 747 to West Palm Beach just after he returned to the White House so he could run his hands over the soft leather chairs and inspect the sycamore- and wacapou-wood veneers. A sales brochure had described the en-suite master bathroom, with its mother-of-pearl inlays, as “almost a piece of art.” The plane was a flying palace fit for a Persian Gulf monarch, or an American president who would like to live like one.…