Trump in talks to accept luxury jet from Qatar's royal family
Trump plans to use the plane as Air Force One while he is in office and later have it donated to his presidential foundation and library.
WASHINGTON − President Donald Trump is in talks to receive a Boeing 747 from the government of Qatar as the next presidential aircraft, which has sparked questions about foreign influence on his administration.
"I would never be one to turn down that kind of an offer," Trump told reporters May 12 at the White House. "I could be a stupid person and say ‘No, we don’t want a free, very expensive airplane.’ But I thought it was a great gesture.”
Trump has been eager since his first term to replace the two jumbo aircraft that serve under the moniker Air Force One when he is aboard. While waiting for Boeing to build a new version, Trump said Qatar has offered one of its planes as a gift that would be turned over to the two-term Republican president’s foundation when he leaves office.
The Defense Department could accept the plane as a gift until Boeing builds the new 747s and then the Qatar aircraft would be transferred to Trump's presidential library, the president said. Trump compared it to the 707 at the late President Ronald Reagan's presidential library.
"It would go directly to the library after I leave office," Trump said.
Ali Al-Ansari, Qatar’s media attache to the U.S., issued a statement saying reports about Qatar presenting the gift to Trump during his trip to the Middle East on May 12 to 16 are “inaccurate.”
“The possible transfer of an aircraft for temporary use as Air Force One is currently under consideration between Qatar’s Ministry of Defense and the US Department of Defense, but the matter remains under review by the respective legal departments, and no decision has been made,” Al-Ansari said.
Democrats and others have criticized the potential gift. A provision in the Constitution called the Emoluments Clause bars any U.S. official from accepting “any present” of “any kind whatsoever, from any King, Prince, or foreign state.”
Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-New York, asked the Government Accountability Office, the Defense Department’s inspector general and the Office of Government Ethics on May 11 to investigate.
“With an estimated value of $400 million, the aerial palace would constitute the most valuable gift ever conferred on a President by a foreign government,” Torres wrote. “The American people are witnessing, in real time, what can only be described as a ‘flying grift.’”
Ari Fleischer, former White House press secretary for Republican President George W. Bush, also discouraged accepting the gift.
“Nothing about getting Air Force One from a foreign government feels right,” Fleischer wrote May 12 on social media. “It shouldn’t pass through foreign hands and it shouldn’t be a gift from a King. Don’t do it.”
Trump fired back at Democrats on social media, saying the plane could be a “GIFT, FREE OF CHARGE” rather than paying “TOP DOLLAR” for the plane. “The Dems are World Class Losers!!!” Trump wrote May 11.