In this episode of The David Frum Show, The Atlantic’s David Frum breaks down what he calls “the week of the four scams”—a stunning display of misinformation and corruption from President Donald Trump involving fake trade deals, manipulated markets, and even a personal jet from Qatar. David is then joined by Indian Member of Parliament and Chairman of the Committee on External Affairs Dr. Shashi Tharoor to examine the recent India-Pakistan cease-fire and just how much (or little) credit the Trump administration can fairly claim for brokering peace. Get more from your favorite Atlantic voices when you subscribe. You’ll enjoy unlimited access to Pulitzer-winning journalism, from clear-eyed analysis and insight on breaking news to fascinating explorations of our world. Atlantic subscribers also get access to exclusive subscriber audio in Apple Podcasts. Subscribe today at theAtlantic.com/listener. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Full Episode
Hello, and welcome to episode six of The David Frum Show. I'm David Frum, a staff writer at The Atlantic. At the very beginning of the first Trump presidency, back in 2017, I posted on Twitter the following thought. Regular reminder that Donald Trump's core competencies is not deal-making with powerful counterparties. It is duping gullible victims.
That warning has seldom been more needed than it has been needed in the past days, which I call the week of the four scams. Over these past few days, Donald Trump has taken credit or introduced one after another piece of outrageous fiction, which he is presenting to the world as some tremendous achievement, and we need to be warned against it and to protect ourselves against it.
Now, the first of the scams will supply the matter of my main conversation in the program today, and that is Donald Trump's attempt to take credit for the India-Pakistan ceasefire. The India-Pakistan ceasefire is a real event. It actually happened.
But Donald Trump's role in it was negligible, to say the least, as you will hear when I speak to my guest today, Dr. Shashi Tharoor, who is chairman of the External Affairs Committee in the Indian Parliament and one of that country's leading voices for liberal and humane values. But now let's talk in the interval about the three scams that took place here at home on the home front.
Two of them are the so-called trade deals that Trump is taking credit for, one with Britain, one with China. Now, these aren't deals in any traditional sense of the word. A trade agreement must be approved by Congress. It's a treaty. These are executive announcements, PR press releases, concepts, plans, projects, noise. They don't amount to anything.
Today, in May, American tariffs are dramatically higher than they were the day before Donald Trump took office. And the effort to make them scale up and to scale down is just a distraction, the way the dealer in a three-card Monty game keeps up a line of patter so that you don't notice that you're being deceived and robbed.
The fourth of the scams is the Donald Trump's project to accept from the Emirate of Qatar the personal gift of a jet, a jet plane that would accrue to him personally during his time as president. And that would then be kept by him and by his heirs through the guise of the Trump library and casino and whatever.
fast food restaurant or whatever he calls it, but nothing that is going to be like any kind of charity. And it looks like the plane will keep operating and be available to him and to his family for use afterwards. It is the most astonishing act of brazen corruption in the history of the American presidency, in the history of many post-Soviet presidencies. I mean, it's un-American.
It can't be compared to anything that has ever happened in American history. And it comes on top of the flow of funds to Donald Trump from all over the world via these strange meme coins that he keeps issuing that someone is buying for no obvious business reason, but as a way to direct funds to the pockets of the president.
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