It’s not personal
Completely normal. Not corrupt at all. No risk of favors in exchange for a tiny gifty. Just a kind gesture from a dear friend. Clean as a whistle.
Trump to accept luxury jet from Qatar to use as Air Force One
Sure; why not? Heads of state accept little prezzies from other countries all the time. A huge luxury airplane isn’t worth much at all – not as much as a nice dinner at the local Chipotle.
Given the massive value of a Boeing 747-8, the move is unprecedented and raises substantial ethical and legal questions. A Qatari official said the plane is technically being gifted from the Qatari Ministry of Defense to the Pentagon, describing it more as a government-to-government transaction instead of a personal one. The Defense Department will then retrofit the plane for the president’s use with security features and modifications.
All totally impersonal. It’s about like donating some concrete slabs to the Pentagon to patch a sidewalk.
The plan is for the plane to be donated to Trump’s presidential library after he leaves office, ensuring he can continue to use it, according to a person familiar.
You what? He gets to keep it?
Stone the crows. That’s a bribe.
Democrats quickly condemned the news Sunday, with the Democratic National Committee describing it in a news release as “Trump’s latest grift.”
“Nothing says ‘America First’ like Air Force One, brought to you by Qatar,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote in a statement. “It’s not just bribery, it’s premium foreign influence with extra legroom.”
And solid gold plating.
Jordan Libowitz, a spokesperson for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said the potential move is a sharp departure from the playbook presidents have followed to ensure they stay in line with the Constitution’s Foreign Emoluments Clause, which bans foreign payments to a sitting US president.
“We’ve never seen something on the level of a $400 million plane,” he said. “It is a scale well beyond anything we’ve ever seen before.”
That’s Trump for ya. From nothing to a luxury jumbo jet in one jump. Tentative he is not.
Impeach. Convict. Remove. Prosecute. Jail.
Customised aircraft, especially this size, take many months if not a year or two to complete. For this to be available in any realistic time frame means either it’s a cast off, or Trump and Qatar have been working on this for a while. I know the Airforce and presumably Boeing will modify and add capabilities, but this will never be as secure, safe, or capable as a purpose built presidential jet. And I know it will/should be swept for bugs. But given the immense complexity of an aircraft, the tiny size of modern bugs, and the ability to have them lie dormant before activating… let’s just say no one will ever be certain that what happens on AF1 will stay on AF1.
Remember this?
https://www.airandspaceforces.com/PDF/MagazineArchive/Documents/2012/September%202012/0912embassy.pdf
Trojan airplane.
@Rob: That was the first thing I thought of when the news of the plane came out.