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Thursday, May 15, 2025

Trump in Qatar Announces Largest Ever Contract With Boeing

Fox Business: the White House said he “signed an agreement with Qatar to generate an economic exchange worth at least $1.2 trillion.” That figure includes “economic deals totaling more than $243.5 billion between the U.S. and Qatar.” The White House said that Boeing and GE Aerospace landed a deal with Qatar Airways worth $96 billion to acquire up to 210 Boeing 787 Dreamliners and 777X aircraft, which are powered by GE Aerospace engines. That marks the largest-ever order for Boeing’s widebody aircraft, as well as the largest-ever 787 order. The White House said the deal “will support 154,000 U.S. jobs annually,” which would total more than 1 million jobs over the production and delivery cycle for the deal (Fox Business). Boeing: Qatar Airways and Boeing [NYSE: BA] today announced the carrier will purchase up to 210 widebody jets, which sets new records as the largest widebody order for Boeing, including the largest order for 787 Dreamliners and Qatar Airways largest-ever order. This purchase, which also includes additional orders for Boeing’s new 777-9, will support approximately 400,000 jobs in the U.S. and position the award-winning Middle Eastern airline for further international expansion (Boeing).

Trump to Syria: An Opportunity to Step Away From Radical Islamism

Greeted with surprise and skepticism. Salem News Channel: U.S. President Donald Trump met with Syria’s president in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday and urged him to normalise ties with longtime foe Israel after a surprise U.S. announcement that it would lift all sanctions on the Islamist-led government. Trump then flew to Qatar, where he oversaw the signing of a deal for the Gulf Arab country to buy jets from U.S. manufacturer Boeing…. After Trump‘s declaration that he would lift sanctions on Syria, which is seeking to rebuild after more than a decade of civil war, he met with interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who swept to power at the head of a group that Washington has called a terrorist organisation and once pledged allegiance to al Qaeda…. “I told him, ‘I hope you’re going to join when it’s straightened out.’ He said, ‘Yes.’ But they have a lot of work to do,” Trump said, according to a White House pool report (Salem News Channel). It was the meeting with Syrian president al-Sharaa that Ed Morrissey found the most “eye-popping”: This looks more like realpolitik rather than a retreat into isolationism, especially with Trump’s exhortation for Sharaa to ally with Israel in the Abraham Accords. Sharaa won his position on the battlefield as the leader of a mainly jihadist army, albeit with significant help from US-backed Kurd forces. Trump had a choice: either shun Sharaa and push him away, or at least attempt to engage and see whether he can be convinced to integrate into a peaceful global order (Hot Air). Noah Rothman: If it succeeds, the benefits to the United States and the West would be immense. The old Syrian regime was an incubator and exporter of terrorism, as well as an Iranian vassal state. The Assad regime trained, funded, and introduced terrorists into Iraq intent on killing American soldiers. It hosted Iranian terrorist proxies as well as the Russian military and its mercenary cutouts…. Insofar as geopolitics is a zero-sum game, taking Syria off the board for Russia and Iran and adding it to the collection of Western assets would be a triumph. At the very least, it’s worth a shot. Trump deserves credit for taking it (National Review).

House Ways and Means Committee Advances “One Big, Beautiful Bill”

The Hill: The House Ways and Means Committee advanced a slew of President Trump’s top tax priorities Wednesday morning, setting the stage for a high-stakes sprint to get the provisions through the GOP’s razor-thin majority. The panel advanced the legislation — part of the party’s package containing Trump’s legislative agenda — in a party-line 26-19 vote following an hours-long, overnight meeting that featured heated debate, scores of Democratic-led amendments, all of which were rejected, and ample estimates of the impact of the proposed policy. The tax bill now heads to the House Budget Committee, which is tasked with combining all the portions of the Trump agenda bill into one package in advance of its consideration in the entire chamber…. The advancement of the measure through the Ways and Means Committee marks a notable step in the right direction for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and for the panel’s chair, Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.), who was tasked with crafting the centerpiece of the GOP’s “one big, beautiful bill” (The Hill). The bill: embraces proven tax policies that build on the success of the 2017 Trump tax cuts while also delivering additional reforms that replace bad tax policy with good tax policy to benefit working families and put America first (X).

Tom Cotton Not Backing Down: Iran Cannot Have Any Nuclear Enrichment Program

The Arkansas Republican is keeping the pressure on as Trump looks toward a deal with Iran. Tom Cotton: This is coming to a head. There’s going to be decisions made in the weeks ahead (X). Axios: Sen. Tom Cotton is trying to build a public pressure campaign to encourage the Trump White House to hold the line on an Iran nuclear deal…. 52 GOP senators — including Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) —signed a letter sent to the White House on Wednesday warning that the “scope and breadth of Iran’s nuclear buildout have made it impossible to verify any new deal that allows Iran to continue enriching uranium….” “President Trump’s got serious negotiating leverage,” Mark Dubowitz, an Iranian expert and CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Axios. “I think Congress is saying you’ve got massive leverage, don’t throw it away the way [former President] Obama did by conceding on enrichment and giving Iran exactly what they need to develop nuclear weapons,” he added (Axios).

Sen. John Kennedy: “I trust Qatar like I trust a rest stop bathroom.”

The Louisiana Republican on Fox: “I trust Qatar like I trust a rest stop bathroom. With those guys, trust in God but tie up your camel” (X). Mark Levin: This scumbag is Qatar: Deputy Prime Minister: “We are all Hamas” (X). Frannie Block and Jay Solomon: Key members of Qatar’s royal family have made their admiration for Islamism—and Hamas specifically—very clear. Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, the mother of Qatar’s emir and the chairperson of an educational nonprofit funneling millions into American schools, praised the mastermind of the October 7, 2023 massacre, Yahya Sinwar: “He will live on,” she wrote on X after his death last year, “and they will be gone….” Qatar has spent almost $100 billion to establish its legitimacy in Congress, American colleges and universities, U.S. newsrooms, think tanks, and corporations. Over the past two decades, it has poured those billions into purchases of American-made weapons and business investments ranging from U.S. real estate to energy plants. It built—and still pays for—the Al Udeid Air Base, even as the American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have ended. Doha finances research and campuses at prestigious American universities. And its lobbyists have the connections needed to open all the right doors in Washington. Since 2017, it has spent $225 million on lobbying and public-relations efforts in the nation’s capital…. Perhaps Qatar will liberalize and bring the region along with it. Perhaps Qatar will join with Saudi Arabia and the UAE to emphasize education and investment above ideology and extremism. But what’s at stake is nothing short of American sovereignty and national security. At a moment when so many political leaders, pundits, and ordinary Americans are reaching for explanations of—or entertaining conspiracies about—who really pulls the strings in Washington and beyond, many of them are ignoring a story in plain sight (Free Press).

Support for the UK’s Assisted Suicide Bill Is Eroding

Sky News: The Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCP) has pulled its support for the assisted dying bill. The announcement is a blow to supporters of the bill ahead of its return to the House of Commons on Friday. It comes as plans to legalise assisted dying in Scotland passed the first stage this week. Dr Lade Smith, president of the RCP, said: “The RCP has reached the conclusion that we are not confident in the Terminally Ill Adults Bill in its current form, and we therefore cannot support the Bill as it stands” (Sky News). From the RCP: With too many unanswered questions about the safeguarding of people with mental illness, the College has concluded that it cannot support the Bill in its current form (Royal Association of Psychiatrists). Telegraph: The assisted dying Bill is at risk of failing because MPs are considering pulling their support, The Telegraph can disclose (Telegraph). Catherine Robinson of Right to Life U.K.: “The Bill was widely predicted to comfortably pass Stage One, so the result will come as a major shock to assisted suicide campaigners supportive of the Bill.”… “This is just the first stage of a long journey through the Scottish Parliament for this dangerous assisted suicide Bill. We are now going to redouble our efforts to ensure we fight this Bill at every stage and ensure that it is defeated to protect the most vulnerable” (Right to Life).

New York Moves Closer to Passing Assisted Suicide Bill; “I tremble to imagine what this state would become if suicide-by-doctor becomes law”

New York Sun: Lawmakers in New York’s state senate are considering an assisted dying bill after it passed the assembly, a milestone since it previously failed to make it out of committee. The assembly passed the Medical Aid in Dying Act earlier this month by an 81-67 vote. Twenty-one Democrats voted against the bill. The legislation now heads to the state senate, where advocates note there has been growing support for the measure in recent years. The senate majority leader, Andrea Stewart-Cousins, told Politico that “certainly more people have signed on in the senate than had been over the past few years.” There are 25 senators who support the bill, and it needs 32 votes to pass (New York Sun). Dovie Eisner: The New York Senate must vote down this charter of death. Failing that, it would be an act of supreme political courage for Gov. Kathy Hochul to veto it. As a young man with disabilities — albeit ones that, with assistance, would still allow me to live a full and familial life — I tremble to imagine what this state would become if suicide-by-doctor becomes law. All New Yorkers are imperiled when the lives of the most vulnerable are rendered cheap (UnHerd).

The Open Border Experiment Failed

Donald Trump and the 77 million voters who gave him the win recognize it. Now U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer is recognizing it as well: “we risk becoming an island of strangers, not a nation that walks forward together” (X). New Stateman: on immigration, Starmer has entered new linguistic territory. “He has accused the last Conservative government of running a “one-nation experiment in open borders” – declaring that it did “incalculable” damage – and vowed to “shut down the lab”. Without stronger migration rules, he warned, Britain risks becoming “an island of strangers” (New Statesman). New York Times: His hardening stance reflects how migration is once again a hot-button issue in Britain. Earlier this month, Nigel Farage, leader of the anti-immigration Reform U.K. party, won a significant victory in regional and mayoral elections — marking a big setback for Mr. Starmer’s Labour Party and the opposition Conservatives. Senior government ministers have speculated that Reform may emerge as Labour’s main rival by the next general election, which might explain a blunt new tone from Mr. Starmer who wrote on social media: “If you want to live in the U.K., you should speak English. That’s common sense” (New York Times). This comes after a candid admission from Starmer late last year: “This happened by design, not accident. Immigration policies were reformed deliberately. It has been a failure. They pretended it wasn’t happening” (X).

Davos Is Done With Klaus Schwab

But it’s too soon to say what will happen to the World Economic Forum that he founded. Wall Street Journal: For decades, Klaus Schwab ruled over Davos like royalty. That reign ended when he hit “send” on an email to World Economic Forum trustees on a recent Friday afternoon…. the founder is at war with the organization he started and led with an iron grip. He has been instructed by Forum lawyers not to destroy emails, financial documents or other records, said people familiar with the situation, and he is forbidden from interacting with staff or using Forum computer systems (Wall Street Journal). Schwab, Davos and the WEF could well be juxtaposed with all we’re seeing in the return of Trump. From the Washinton Post in January: Walter Russell Mead, the right-leaning U.S. foreign policy scholar, gestured to a room of dignitaries and corporate executives and said that Trump’s political victory underscored how all those present are “losing.” Mead said that the spirit animating the Davos veterans in attendance — “the general kind of intellectual, professional, managerial people who thought history was over,” as he put it, invoking the paradigm of a triumphant liberalism popularized by political philosopher Francis Fukuyama — was in retreat. Their homilies to international cooperation, the threat of climate change and the virtues of globalization increasingly find less of an audience elsewhere. “Davos vs Washington,” declared an editorial in French daily Les Echos, pointing to the inescapable dichotomy between the gatherings of rich and powerful at Trump’s inauguration and here in the Swiss mountains. “Davos is, from an intellectual point of view, more and more irrelevant,” Julien Vaulpré, founder of Taddeo, a French strategic communications firm, and a former adviser to then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy, told me. “The agenda was to push globalization and free trade and so on, and that’s been done. Now, there’s a setback” (Washington Post).

10.

Are We Done With Woke? More Than a “Vibe Shift”

Eric Kaufman: The decline of woke isn’t merely a “vibe shift.” It marks the end of the 60-year rise of left-liberalism in American culture. We are entering a post-progressive era…. From endemic populism to declining birthrates, youth mental health to working-class social collapse and deaths of despair, the cultural left seems to be part of the problem rather than the solution. While the economic left remains relevant, cultural progressivism is losing influence. When a quasi-religious movement that sees itself as the vanguard of history stops rising, the effect is more profound than when an incremental reform movement is forced to moderate. Like a bicyclist who has stopped pedaling, the results are cataclysmic. We are leaving the age of progressive confidence, but what will replace it? When the stories that set the direction for society no longer seem relevant, an opening is created for new ideas that can build on criticism of the existing order. How long the transition takes and what replaces progressivism as our cultural lodestar will become evident only in the fullness of time (Wall Street Journal).

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