The Qatari government said a final decision hadn’t been made. Still, Trump defended the idea — what would amount to a president accepting an astonishingly 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,” Trump posted on his social media site on Sunday night. “Anybody can do that!”
Before 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.
One expert on government ethics, Kathleen Clark of the Washington University School of Law in St. Louis, accused 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 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.”
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.
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 official was briefed about the plane and spoke Sunday on the condition of anonymity to discuss plans that have not yet been made public.
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 refueling 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.”
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 Trump after he apparently backed a boycott of Doha by four Arab nations in his first term. 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 Trump’s assets are in a trust managed by his children and that a voluntary ethics agreement released by the Trump Organization in January bars the company from striking deals directly with foreign governments.
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 Trump “is doing anything for his own benefit.”
