Rep. Andy Barr can’t fool us. We know ‘art of the deal’ is really ‘art of the dupe’ | Opinion
Congressman Andy Barr gleefully embraced the president’s acceptance of a multimillion dollar airplane from Qatar to be used as Air Force One as “the art of the deal.” If holding out one’s hand and waiting for the palm to be greased is an “art,” then yes. Buy into the Trump family’s real estate ventures or stable coins and maybe even win a VIP tour of the White House. It’s all for sale. Pay $1 million for a single dinner at Mar-a-largo and your criminal son is suddenly pardoned!
What we are actually seeing is the art of the dupe. The US will get nothing from the “flying palace “ except an estimated bill of $410 million to retrofit it for national security concerns. That work should be finished just as Trump leaves office — and takes the plane with him. Did Trump say “gift”? Sounds like “grift” on American taxpayers, and he can’t do it without Andy Barr and the other Republicans.
This is only one of the relentless, daily dupes from the current administration. Other examples:
▪ Threaten and bully companies to stop showing consumers the exact increased costs they are paying because of Trump tariffs. Maybe they will be duped into believing some other country pays the tariffs, and they won’t blame Trump and Barr for the increased costs of everything from groceries to cars.
▪ Pretend (with Trump ) that the economy “is BOOMING!” even when the facts show a slowdown, and inflation. The Wall Street Journal is not duped and says economists can no longer trust government data.
▪ Try to pretend that a wasteful military parade (at enormous costs to the taxpayers and against the advice of some military leaders) shows strength, at the same time the administration breaks alliances, treaties, contracts, and promises, all making our national security weaker. Will the voters see it as a whimsical birthday party for a childish leader, or will they be duped?
None of this compares, of course, to the massive dupe that is DOGE. Elon Musk was allowed to come in and cancel internet contracts to make way for his own Starlink instead. The head of the Federal Aviation Administration was bullied into leaving just as he was investigating Musk’s Space-X. Inspectors General whose job it was to prevent such corruption and conflicts of interest were fired. Musk somehow got access to the confirmed personal data of millions of Americans from the federal agencies to which the data was entrusted, a treasure trove for his ventures in artificial intelligence.
The “cover” dupe for all of this was a purported zeal by Musk and Russell Vought (leader of Project 2025’s effort to dismantle the American government) for “government efficiency.” Rep. Rosa Delauro (D-Conn.) was not duped. She said to Vought —to his face — that DOGE was “never about government efficiency “ but a ploy to break the government. “Waste, fraud, and abuse are not targets of this administration. They are [its] primary objectives.”
Compare that to Barr’s own response to DOGE: He actually used his Facebook page to “express gratitude” to Musk and Vought, even as they plundered the government and hollowed it out.
Maybe Barr was himself duped by Musk and Vought. If so (or if not), he has shown himself to be unworthy of public office. The voters cannot be blamed when leaders either do the duping or fail to protect their constituents from it. As Carl Sandburg wrote, the people are “believers and hopers” and that should not be held against us. But there comes a point where the people are also what Sandburg called “knowers.” And “when has the fiber of the people been as shoddy as what is sold to the people by cheaters?” Never.
Barr should not count on Kentucky voters being duped. Kentuckians are “knowers” and they know that corruption is not “the art of the deal.” It is just corruption.
Anne Chesnut is a retired attorney in Lexington.