Apple CEO arrives with a glass disk on a 24-karat gold base; the President receives it on camera.

The CEO of Apple walked into the Oval Office on Wednesday with a circular slab of glass etched with the presidential seal, mounted on a 24-karat gold base, manufactured in Utah by a former Marine corporal who now works for Apple. The plaque was a “unique unit of one.” The President held it up for the cameras. He thanked the man.

Then he announced a 100 percent tariff on imported chips, with an exemption for companies that have committed to manufacturing in the United States. Companies like, for example, Apple.

Hon. We can both see what happened.

There is a scene in every gangster movie where the man in the corner office accepts a thing wrapped in nice paper and the audience knows, without being told, that the thing wrapped in nice paper is the reason the next sentence is what it is. The audience knows because the audience grew up on movies. We have a shared cultural understanding of what bribery looks like in a film.

This was not a film. This was an Oval Office. It was televised on the news channels you watch over breakfast. The plaque was real. The gold was real. The tariff exemption was real. It was not even subtle. It happened in the same press availability.

The Constitution has an Emoluments Clause. The clause says the President is not supposed to take valuable gifts from people in exchange for things only the President can do. The clause was written by men who had read Roman history and were trying not to repeat it.

The Roman history happened anyway, on Wednesday, on camera. Tim Cook said it was a unique unit of one. The unique unit of one was the deal.

You ever notice how the people who say the system is rigged sure do enjoy operating the rig.

Funny how that works.