Laura Blasey and Max Matza
BBC News
US President Donald Trump has defended the White House plan to receive a luxury jumbo jet from Qatar to be used as America’s Air Force One presidential plane.
“They’re giving us a gift,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday, adding that he would be “a stupid person” if he did not accept it.
In an earlier statement, a Qatari spokesman said it would be “inaccurate” to refer to the plane as a gift. He said the transfer of an aircraft for “temporary use” was under discussion between the two countries.
The news comes as Trump is set to visit Qatar this week as part of the first major foreign trip of his second term.
Speaking on Monday, Trump said that the US had helped the other country “a lot over the years in terms of security and safety” and that he had “a lot of respect for the leadership” of the country.
He went on to say it would be a “very nice gesture” if Qatar provided the US with a Boeing jet while his government continued to wait for two new ones to be provided directly by Boeing itself.
The potential value of the plane and its handling has raised legal and ethical questions among critics on the political left and right.
The US Constitution has a provision known as the Emoluments Clause, which restricts what gifts US presidents can accept from foreign governments. It was designed to prevent leaders from becoming beholden to foreign governments.
On social media, Democratic Senator Adam Schiff from California quoted a section of the US Constitution that said no elected official could accept “any present… of any kind whatever” from the leader of a foreign state without congressional approval.
Congressman Ritchie Torres, a New York Democrat, called on the Government Accountability Office to investigate, saying the plane could “constitute the most valuable gift ever conferred on a president by a foreign government”.
But there was criticism, too, from some of Trump’s staunchest supporters.
Daily Wire podcaster Ben Shapiro lambasted the plane deal on Monday as “skeezy”.
“Is this good for President Trump?” Shapiro said. “Is it good for his agenda? Is it good for draining the swamp and getting things done? The answer is no, it isn’t.”
Far-right influencer Laura Loomer also criticised the move. She posted to say she would “take a bullet” for the president, but that any decision to accept the jet would be “such a stain” on the administration.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Sunday that “any gift given by a foreign government is always accepted in full compliance with all applicable laws. President Trump’s administration is committed to full transparency”.
The White House’s current fleet includes two Boeing 747-200B planes customised for presidential use with special communications equipment and features like a state room, office and conference room. The planes have been in use since 1990 and 1991.
Qatar is said to be offering a version of a Boeing 747-8, a much newer model that ABC News reports has been upgraded into a “flying palace”.
The plane, reported to be worth about $400m (£303m), would not be ready for use right away if provided to the US, as it would need to be retrofitted and cleared by security officials, sources told CBS, the BBC’s US partner.
Boeing has already been contracted to directly provide the White House with two 747-8s directly, but Trump complained earlier this year that the firm was behind schedule.
His team negotiated to receive these during his first term in office, though Boeing has cautioned that they will not be available for two or three more years.
Qatar – a country with which Trump has long had a positive relationship – has also previously given private jets as gifts to other countries, including Turkey.
This would not be the first Trump-related deal with Qatar. Last month, his company signed a deal to build a luxury golf resort there, marking its first foreign deal since the Republican returned to office in January.
According to CBS, the plane that Trump could acquire would be donated at the end of his term to his presidential library, which is a collection of artefacts related to a US leader’s time in office.
Air Force One planes usually carry over to other administrations. According to the National Archives, only the presidential library for Ronald Reagan has an Air Force One jet.
Trump, a businessman-turned-president, has been no stranger to conflict-of-interest accusations since taking office in 2017. During his first term, critics accused him of enriching himself in a number of ways, including through his hotel in Washington DC. A lawsuit followed, but was never concluded.
Commenting on the potential transfer of the plane, David Super, a law professor at Georgetown University, told the BBC: “It certainly stinks, but formally it’s a transfer to the [US] government, not the office holder.”
However, the jet could be viewed as an illegal personal gift to Trump if he is able to use it in his private life after leaving office, Prof Super added.
As for who could protest such a move – Congress could pass a resolution denouncing it, said Prof Super, albeit this would be unlikely given the Republican dominance on Capitol Hill, and it would not stop the actual transfer.
