What The Hell America!

NEARLY TWO DECADES AGO, Sen. Chuck Schumer was trying to figure out how best to position Democrats in the 2006 midterm elections when news broke that the major global logistics company Dubai Ports World was reaching a deal with the George W. Bush administration to manage some of the largest U.S. ports.

Ever the opportunist (in the best, political sense of the word), Schumer went to work.

The New York Democrat, who chaired his party’s Senate campaign arm that cycle, smacked the Bush White House for handing over security at ports like New York, Newark, Baltimore, and Miami to a company owned by the United Arab Emirates. He organized a rally with family members of 9/11 victims to call on President Bush to override the deal. He called out Republicans for undermining national security and warned that terrorists could infiltrate American ports under the control of Dubai Ports World.

It was a cynical play to capitalize on post-9/11, anti-Arab sentiment. But it worked. The attacks left Republicans squirming and, after the Bush White House signaled it wanted out, Dubai Ports World walked away from the deal.

The episode has since been forgotten in the annals of political history. But veterans of that cycle say it played an important role in helping Democrats win back control of Congress—not because it whipped up anti-Arab frenzy, but because it fed one of the Democrats’ main messages: that the Bush administration was secretive and corrupt, and that the wider Republican party was consumed with keeping secrets from the public and scandals of their own. Exit polls showed a majority of midterm voters said that corruption and ethics in government was a key issue in deciding their vote.

A lot has changed since 2006. But Democrats are hoping to recreate a similar political landscape for the 2026 midterms. And though it won’t involve Dubai Ports World (the company remains a multibillion dollar behemoth) it will involve deals being negotiated between the White House and an actor from the Middle East.

The party is moving swiftly to capitalize on the outrage this week over President Doanld Trump’s decision to accept a luxury Boeing 747-8 from Qatar’s royal family to serve as Air Force One. Democrats view it as a first swing in hammering home a corruption message similar to that of 2006—except better.

“This one is much more straightforward: The president is doing something corrupt,” said Matt Miller, who worked for Sen. Bob Menendez in 2006. The former New Jersey senator was a vocal critic alongside Schumer of the Dubai Ports World deal. “I think the salient argument that’s cutting through is not the potential national security risk, which I think is a bit overblown. It’s that the president is a crook and is taking something to benefit himself, which is just a very simple, easy argument to understand.”

Other veterans of the ’06 cycle are already reviving the playbook. Rahm Emanuel, who was the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2006 (and is reportedly considering a 2028 presidential run), went on ABC’s The View on Wednesday and said “the White House has a ‘For Sale’ sign on the front lawn.” He argued that the Democratic party’s midterm message should focus on ending “this chaos and corruption.” Schumer, for his part, threatened to hold up Trump’s Justice Department nominations until he gets more answers on the Air Force One replacement.

One of the befuddling, paradoxical problems Democrats have had in the Donald Trump era is that the president often presents too much fodder for them. One controversy is quickly followed by another, forcing the party to choose either to adjust or try and painfully stay focused on their preferred messaging. The benefit of the Qatar airline gift storyline is that it’s not only what Democrats want to be talking about, it seems to be something the public is focused on as well.

A YouGov poll released on May 12—shortly after the Qatar plane news broke—found that a plurality of Americans thought it was unacceptable for Trump to accept the gift, including 48 percent of independents who disapproved. Democratic strategists believe that disapproval number will only continue to grow as the Qatar plane continues to get traction online. A DNC official said some of their best-performing social media posts this month have been about the plane.

Democratic strategist Mike Nellis also said that his fundraising appeals and social media posts sent out this week that included mention of the Qatar plane were performing better than average.

“It’s an easy story to understand. I’m seeing Democratic activists excited about it, I’m seeing a lot of interest on TikTok. And TikTok stuff only really blows up when there’s some kind of common public hook to it,” said Nellis.

Democrats’ midterm message, he argued, should go something like this: Trump’s “chaotic tariffs have increased prices by X percent, and meanwhile he’s taking $400 million bribes in the form of a jet from foreign governments in the Middle East—with images of Donald Trump standing with Saudi Arabia officials.”

Whether or not something pops off on TikTok might seem trivial. But a key part of Trump’s 2024 win was due to the fact that he overperformed with voters who consumed very little or no news. When these voters did get information about the election, it was often via social media.

“The simplest arguments are the most effective ones, where you don’t have to take time to explain it,” said Tom Bonier, CEO of the Democratic data firm TargetSmart. “When the average American hears that the president took a $400 million gift from a country that—frankly, Republicans have spent a lot of time talking about them specifically as not allies—that’s a pretty easy one for people to get. This seems to be trickling into different circles.”

TRUMP OFFICIALS—INCLUDING THE PRESIDENT—have cast the plane as a gift to the Defense Department, not Trump himself. They’ve argued that they would be stupid not to take it and insisted that the plane would be donated to Trump’s presidential library after he leaves office. But it’s unclear whether that means Trump could use it after he’s out of office (he has said he won’t).

The plane controversy has raised legal, ethical, and national-security issues—drawing criticism even from some of Trump’s supporters. But the administration has given no hint of backing off. And Democrats have given no indication that they’re sad about it. The Democratic National Committee on Tuesday scrambled to fly a sky banner that read “Welcome to Qatar-a-Lago” over Trump’s Florida resort.

“Donald Trump is using the presidency to personally enrich himself while he bankrupts working families. His corruption is a slap in the face to the millions of Americans who are struggling to get by and put food on the table,” DNC chair Ken Martin said in a statement to The Bulwark. “Trump won’t hesitate to sell out America’s working families to the highest bidder.”

While Democrats may feel optimistic about turning the Qatar airline controversy into campaign fodder, Trump has withstood charges of corruption before. Since he came down the golden escalator ten years ago to announce his candidacy, Democrats have focused on his shady business dealings, accusations of tax evasion, and questions about his family foundation’s finances and his private university’s operations. And yet he is in the Oval Office. But even people who don’t follow politics seem to know and care about the plane. And as ’06 veterans note, sometimes a simple storyline is all that’s needed.

“The main phrase during the [2006] midterms was around the ‘culture of corruption,’” said Macon Phillips, a Democratic strategist who played a leading role in that cycle. “The very base level of corruption is just as obvious as it’s ever been. But the other piece which I think is really scary is that the corruption transcends national interest and starts involving international interests, and so whoever has the money, the highest bidder, gets the power.”

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— Sunday’s news that former President Joe Biden has an “aggressive” form of prostate cancer that has already metastasized to the bone casts a pall over the already dark and complicated conversations revisiting his mental acuity while he was in office. Debates on the subject have rippled through the political media this week, largely driven by the publication of Original Sin, Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s book on the subject.

Friday brought a new twist, when Axios published the audio of Biden’s October 2023 interviews with special counsel Robert Hur. Although the Justice Department made available transcripts of the interviews in early 2024, the Biden White House had refused to release the audio of the interviews. And if you give the five-hour-long recording a listen, it’s pretty easy to understand why. As Marc Caputo and Thompson write, the recordings vividly show “Biden having trouble recalling . . . details—while occasionally slurring words and muttering.” The audio “appears to validate Hur’s assertion that jurors in a trial likely would have viewed Biden as ‘a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.’”

Pod Save America host and former Obama adviser Tommy Vietor concluded that the “audio clearly shows a guy who should not be running for reelection. It also shows a man who is exhausted because the October 7th attacks had just happened. And the broader context is a very scary and politically devastating law enforcement interview. It’s just messy and terrible all around.”

— The clashes over Biden are just part of a broader Democratic party reckoning over age. Two House Democrats died earlier this spring (70-year-old Rep. Sylvester Turner of Texas and 77-year-old Rep. Raúl Grijalva of Arizona), and a number of older Democrats have read the room and announced that they would not seek re-election, making way for a younger generation.

But according to a report from Axios, most of the oldest House Democrats are staying put. Of the 30 House Democrats who are 75 or older, more than half said they plan to seek re-election.

— “I Worked for Joe Biden. I Love Joe Biden. He Must Rethink His Post-Presidency.”

— Stephen A. Smith Is Running. To Be Joe Rogan.

— Wes Moore, the nation’s lone Black governor, vetoes bill to study reparations.