Qatar gifts Trump luxury plane to use as Air Force One

Donald Trump is ready to accept a Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet as a gift from Qatar’s ruling family during his trip to the Middle East this week, defending it as fiscally smart move.

Donald Trump arrives on Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews. Picture: AP.

Donald Trump is ready to accept a luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet as a gift from the ruling family of Qatar during his trip to the Middle East this coming week, with US officials saying it could be converted into a potential presidential aircraft.

The Qatari government said a final decision hadn’t been made. But Mr Trump took to social media to defend the idea — which would amount to a president accepting a valuable gift from a foreign government — as a fiscally smart move for the country.

“So the fact that the Defense Department is getting a GIFT, FREE OF CHARGE, of a 747 aircraft to replace the 40 year old Air Force One, temporarily, in a very public and transparent transaction, so bothers the Crooked Democrats that they insist we pay, TOP DOLLAR, for the plane,” Mr Trump posted on his Truth Social site on Sunday night (local time).

“Anybody can do that!”

ABC News reported that Mr Trump will use the aircraft as his presidential plane until shortly before he leaves office in January 2029, when ownership will be transferred to the foundation overseeing his yet-to-be-built presidential library.

The gift was expected to be announced when Mr Trump visits Qatar, according to ABC’s report, as part of a trip that also includes stops in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the first extended foreign travel of his second term.

Before Mr Trump’s post trumpeting the idea, Ali Al-Ansari, Qatar’s media attaché, said in a statement that 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,” the statement added.

Meanwhile, administration officials, anticipating ethics concerns, have prepared an analysis arguing that accepting the plane would be legal, according to the ABC. The Constitution’s Emoluments Clause bars anyone holding government office from accepting any present, emolument, office or title from any “King, Prince, or foreign State,” without congressional consent.

One expert on government ethics, Kathleen Clark of the Washington University School of Law in St. Louis, accused Mr Trump of being “committed to exploiting the federal government’s power, not on behalf of policy goals, but for amassing personal wealth.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer poked fun at Mr Trump’s “America first” political slogan.

“Nothing says ‘America First’ like Air Force One, brought to you by Qatar,” the New York Democrat said in a statement. “It’s not just bribery, it’s premium foreign influence with extra legroom.”

Donald Trump toured a Qatari-owned Boeing 747 at Palm Beach International airport. Picture: AFP.

Even some conservatives expressed dismay online, noting that an aircraft being offered by a foreign government could present security risks if used by a U.S. president.

Air Force One is a modified Boeing 747. Two exist, and the president flies on both, which are more than 30 years old. Boeing Inc. has the contract to produce updated versions, but delivery has been delayed while the company has lost billions of dollars on the project.

Mr Trump intends to convert the Qatari aircraft into a plane he can fly on as president, with the Air Force planning to add secure communications and other classified elements to it. But it will still have more limited capabilities than the existing planes that were built to serve as Air Force One, as well as two other aircraft currently under construction, according to a former U.S. official.

The existing planes used as Air Force One are heavily modified with survivability capabilities for the president for a range of contingencies, including radiation shielding and antimissile technology. They also include a variety of communications systems to allow the president to remain in contact with the military and issue orders from anywhere in the world.

The official told The Associated Press that it would be possible to quickly add some countermeasures and communications systems to the Qatari plane, but that it would be less capable than the existing Air Force One aircraft or long-delayed replacements.

Neither the Qatari plane nor the upcoming VC-25B aircraft will have the air-to-air refuelling capabilities of the current VC-25A aircraft, which is the one the president currently flies on, the official said.

Jordan Libowitz, communications director for the advocacy group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, called such a gift “unprecedented.”

“The totality of gifts given to a president over their term doesn’t get close to this level,” Libowitz said, adding, “You have to ask, if he makes foreign policy — especially in regards to the Middle East — how much is he being influenced by his gifts and his business deals.” ABC said the new plane is similar to a 13-year-old Boeing aircraft Mr Trump toured in February, while it was parked at Palm Beach International Airport and he was spending the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago club.

Donald Trump boards Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport. Picture: AP.

Mr Trump faced lawsuits for violating the Emoluments Clause during his first term, but those were ended by the Supreme Court in 2021, which found the cases moot because he had left office.

Mr Trump’s family business, the Trump Organisation, which is now largely run by his sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, has vast and growing interests in the Middle East. That includes a new deal to build a luxury golf resort in Qatar, partnering with Qatari Diar, a real estate company backed by that country’s sovereign wealth fund.

Qatar, which is ruled by the Al Thani family, is home to the state-owned airline Qatar Airways. The country also has worked to have a close relationship to Mr Trump after he apparently backed a boycott of Doha by four Arab nations in his first term. Mr Trump later in his term applauded Qatar.

Administration officials have brushed off concerns about the president’s policy interests blurring with family’s business profits. They note that Mr Trump’s assets are in a trust managed by his children and that a voluntary ethics agreement released by the Trump Organisation in January bars the company from striking deals directly with foreign governments.

But that same agreement allows deals with private companies abroad. That is a departure from Mr Trump’s first term, when the organisation released an ethics pact prohibiting both foreign government and foreign company deals.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, when asked Friday if the president might meet with people who have ties to his family’s business, said it was “ridiculous” to suggest Mr Trump “is doing anything for his own benefit.”

AP