President Donald Trump’s Middle East visit will have a controversial stop at ‘frenemy’ Qatar. The royal family in Qatar is planning to gift the president a super luxury Boeing 747-8jumbo jet to Trump which the president is preparing to accept, the ABC News reported and called it the ‘most valuable gift’ ever extended from a foreign government. The report said Trump is likely to use it as his new Air Force One as long as he is in office.And then the plane will be transferred to the Trump Presidential Library Foundation.Critics and Democrats reacted to the ABC News report and called it a ‘bribery in broad daylight’.This is Trump’s first foreign trip in his second term, and the expensive gift is not new as it was parked at the West Palm Beach International Airport in February, and Trump toured the plane.
Why is this jet called a flying palace?
According to reports, the converted Qarae Airways Boeing 748 was once called a flying palace for the global royaly because of its opulent accommodation. It has a bedroom suite, lounges, boardrooms, marble-clad bathrooms and a grand staircase. For Trump’s use, it has been retrofitted by US defence contractor L3Harris.
Is it legal for Trump to accept this gift?
ABC News reported that lawyers for the White House counsel’s office and the Department of Justice drafted an analysis for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth concluding that is legal for the Department of Defense to accept the aircraft as a gift and later turn it over to the Trump library, and that it does not violate laws against bribery or the Constitution’s prohibition (the emoluments clause) of any US government official accepting gifts “from any King, Prince or foreign State.”The estimated value of the aircraft is about $400 million. The administration weighed on all the aspects and concluded that it does not constitute bribery as it won’t be a gift to Donald Trump, but rather to the United States Air Force and then to the presidential library foundation.
