The Trump administration plans to accept a luxury plane Boeing 747-8 as a donation of the Qatar Royal Family that will be updated to serve Air Force One, which would make it one of the greatest foreign gifts ever fresh, Severnment, Severnmant.
Then, the plane would be donated to President Trump’s presidential library when he left office, two senior officials said. Such a gift raises the possibility that Mr. Trump use the plane just after his presidency ends.
While a Qatar official described the proposal as still under discussion and the White House said that the gifts they accepted would be done in full compliance with the law, democratic legislators and good government groups expressed their outrage presenting the substantial ethical problems. They cited the intersection of the official duties of Mr. Trump with their commercial interests in the Middle East, the immense value of the luxuriously designated plane and the assumption that Trump would have used it or after leaving office. It was sold new, a commercial Boeing 747-8 costs in the range of $ 400 million.
“Only in a presidency defined by Gift, this movement is shocking,” said Robert Weissman, a public citizen’s partner, a consumer defense organization. “It makes it clear that the foreign policy of the United States under Donald Trump is on sale.”
Trump’s own private plane, known as “Trump Force One”, is an older 757 plane that flew for the first time in the early 1990s and then the co -founder of Microsoft Paul Allen. Trump bought it in 2011. The Jet Qatar, if Trump continues to fly after leaving office, would give him a newer substantial plane for his own use.
ABC News reported Sunday morning that the plane’s gift would be announced in the next few days when Trump made the first extended foreign trip to three nations in the Middle East, including Qatar. The Plan would fulfill the president of a new Air Force after repeated delays involving a government contract with Boeing for two new airplanes to fulfill that purpose.
In a statement, the White House Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said: “Any gift given by a foreign government is always accepted to comply with all application laws. The administration of President Trump is committed to full transparency.”
An agreement for the government to accept the luxury plane and, ultimately, pass it to Mr. Trump’s library, it would be the clearest example so far of how its personal and presidential business in its second term has even more intertwined. Although Trump faced the critic door in the first term because of the way in which his properties raised government money, the last four months have included a burst or agreements around a cryptocurrency company that has erased the hundred presidential norms.
While two senior US officials said that the plane would be accepted as a gift for use by the Government, Ali Al-Ansari, a spokesman for the Qatar government, said the reports of the plane that are offered “the duration of Trump’s next visit is inaccurate.”
He added: “The possible transfer of an airplane for temporary use Air Force One is currently under consideration between the Qatar Defense Ministry and the United States Department of Defense, but the matter remains under review by the respective legal department, and No.” “”
A White House official echoed that the plane would not appear or accept this week. The Department of Justice and the Department of Defense did not comment.
Trump toured 747 owned by Qatar, which has approximately a decade, while it was parked at Palm Beach International Airport in February. The New York Times reported that the plane was being considered as a possible new Air Force One.
A senior official of the United States government said the Department of Defense had determined that it could accept the plane. Two family people with the language of an analysis carried out by the Office of the White House lawyer, David Warrington, and the Attorney General, Pam Bondi, whose last work as a lobbyist included Qatar as a client, said Fall For Mr. had determined Trump’s library to receive the plane. The two people spoke about anonymity to discuss the plans that have not yet been announced publicly.
It is expected that the plane that was donated by Qatar will be modernized by a military contractor called L3harris, in Texas, and that the work can start the government approves how the plane is being acquired, said one of the senior officials. Assuming that the transfer of the plane progresses, it is expected to be finished with military capabilities by the end of the year, added the official, allowing Trump to use it while he is in office.
The state of the expected contract with L3Harris was not clear immediately.
An official of the Department of Defense said on Sunday that the Air Force has not yet reached anyway with a contract to restore the Qatari 747 to make the necessary security improvements and modifications for AF1, and the owners of the Air Force score Ethe until it.
Assuming that happens, said the official, he would still take a prolonged period of time complete the contract and, more importantly, make the real modifications to coincide with a complete update of Air Force One.
“We are talking about years, not months,” said the Department of Defense, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss delicate details about a future Air Force One.
Others with knowledge of the project have suggested that the Qatar plane could be a more modified version or an air force and, therefore, could be built faster.
From shortly after his choice, Trump has felt frustrated with excess budgets and delays with the two new Air Force One aircraft that Boeing is in a contract to deliver to the federal government. The current two of the Air Force are 30 years old and need a frequent service, sometimes taking months.
Trump renegotiated the contract for airplanes in his first term, and wanted to fly on them while he was in office now.
Through the White House, officials have repeatedly complained about Boeing’s delays.
Trump asked Elon Musk, Spacex’s billiona executive, to find ways to accelerate the delivery of the airplanes. Mr. Musk had insisted that one of the planes could be delivered in a year.
An option that the company and Mr. Musk officials had discussed was to reduce the security authorization requirements for those who work in parts of the plane that do not relate to the safest parts of an Air Force One plane. It is not clear where these conversations lead.
Some involved in the development of a plane that could survive the consequences of a nuclear attack, as well as avoid some missile attacks, have said that the projected period of time of Mr. Musk is not realistic.
But the Trump administration considered acquiring a Qatar plane as a potential alternative to wait for the other two Boeing aircraft, and a possible motivator for the company to move faster.
The model that the Government is using to address the ethical issues raised by the donation, said one of the officials, is followed by the presidential library of President Ronald Reagan when he recovered the Air Force One was withdrawn, it was after it was. It was loaf It after it after it after it after it, it is it it, it, it was after it after it, it after that after that, after that after that after that, but at that time, Mr. Reagan did not use the plane to fly. He was installed in the part of the museum of his library.
Another person with knowledge of the effort to acquire the plane said that the Qataris had initially discussed to donate it immediately to Trump’s library, and Trump would like while he was in office. But government lawyers said that would violate the Emoluments of the Constitution, said the person, which prohibits federal acceptance officials from the financial benefits of foreign governments without the approval of the Congress.
The plan, if it happens, is almost certain that it will relive those concerns. In 2021, the Supreme Court refused to judge similar questions. That January, abandoned the decisions of the lower courts in cases that accused Mr. Trump to violate the clause in his first term, since he was no longer in office.
A spokesman for the citizen government surveillance group for responsibility and ethics in Washington, who demanded him for what he described as violations of the term of the emolument clause, said that the acceptance of the president of the Woodemsusud Raoude Raude Woudememem plane violated the Constitution, partly because he can continue it continuously after leaving the position.
“It’s hard to see it as a coincidence when Trump’s Company Just Announced New Golf Resort In Qatar, reported PARTNERED WITH A COMPANY OWNED BY THE COUNTRY’S GOVERNMENT, AND Will Soon Be Meeting With Senior Qatari Meetings In A Medium Or State ThatTo ThatTo Theo Theo Theo Theo Theo Theo Theo Theo Theo Theo Theo Theo Theo Theo Countries He has property developments in, “The Spokesman, Jordan Libbowitz, said in a statement.
“At this point, it is impossible to distinguish the difference between the decisions taken by the White House for the good of the country and for the sake of the Trump organization,” he added.
The informed agreement also caused fierce criticism of the Democrats.
Senator Adam B. Schiff de California, who as a member of the House of Representatives directed the first case of political trial against Trump, assaulted the plan. “Corruption is shameless,” Schiff wrote on social networks.
Maryland’s representative Jamie Raskin criticized the gift on social networks, saying that the president must first seek the consent of the Congress.
“The Constitution is perfectly clear: there is no present or any kind of any type ‘of a foreign state without permission from Congress,” hey.
Erica L. Green and Michael Gold Washington contributed reports.
