The president of the United States, Donald Trump, defends his decision to accept the gift of a luxury Boeing 747-800 plane offered by the Royal Family of Qatar to do the functions of Air Force One, The official plane of the Head of State. “It would be stupid” not to receive it, he has assured in a statement to the press in the Oval Office before starting a tour of the Persian Gulf that will take him to Saudi Arabia, to Qatar – the country that entertains him with the aircraft – already United Arab Emirates. Despite the opinion of the Republican, the possibility of the gift, valued at about 400 million dollars (about 375 million euros), has unleashed a flood of criticism, complaints about influence peddling and ethical questions, even among its most staunch supporters.
“I think it is a great gesture of Qatar,” Trump said, in an appearance with his Secretary of Health, Robert Kennedy, to present a drug reduction plan. “I appreciate it very much. I would never reject that kind of offer,” he confirmed while attacking ABC News, the television network that first reported on the gift.
The president’s opinion collides frontally with the doctrine that the successive US administrations had maintained so far. The country’s constitution is clear: its so -called “emolument clause” prohibits that officials and senior positions from the country receive gifts from foreign governments, unless Congress allows it. This veto seeks to close any possibility of bribery by leaders from other countries and avoid foreign interferences in the decisions of the US government. Usually, the heads of foreign status and the US presidents are exchanged for small gifts in state visits, but their value is relatively reduced and fulfill without problems the standards authorized by the Capitol.
The most expensive gift
In this case, it would be the most expensive gift ever accepted by an American president, for a huge difference. But State lawyers and the Department of Justice have decided that it is legal to receive it. The idea would be, according to ABC News, that the plane was delivered to the American Air Force, on which the Air Force One and that it would be in charge of putting it ready to meet the strict security measures of a presidential aircraft. Before Trump’s mandate ended, in 2029, the Pentagon would give up the Boeing 747 to the Republican Presidential Library, which could use it personal.
Trump blames the situation to the Boeing aeronautical giant, who has signed a contract to manufacture two new Air Force One that replace the current ones, who are over 40 years old and are already very blacked. But the production of these aircraft has been dotted with delays, and the US president had gained their irritation in a very public way.
The Cataríes, according to Trump, “have said they would like to do something” to help “and if they can contribute a 747 to use the Department of Defense.” The president does not raise the possibility of paying the cost of the plane. “We give free things, so we will accept one that is too.”
In a comment on his social networks, the US president had already tried to justify that the leader of the world’s first economy accepts a gift worth hundreds of millions of dollars of an emirate that has already been involved in other cases of suspicion of corruption, including the scandal Qatargate of 2022 in the European Parliament or complaints about the candidacy of that country to organize the 2022 World Cup.
“The fact that the Department of Defense receives a gift, totally free, from a 747 plane that replaces the Air Force One That he is already 40 years old, in a very public and transparent transaction, annoyed the corrupt Democrats who insist that we pay a lot of dollars for the plane, ”wrote the Republican on his social network, Truth, Truth, on Sunday night.“ Anyone can do that! Democrats are world -class losers! ”He added.
Democrats have launched themselves to claim that Trump renounces the gift or that, at least, he pays it. The opposition and non -governmental organizations focused on good government practices point out that receiving such a gift raises serious ethical issues. In particular, given the businesses that the president’s family develops in the states of the Persian Gulf.
“Even in a presidency defined by the scams, this step is shocking,” said Robert Weissman, co -president of Public Citizen, a consumer defending organization, to the newspaper The New York Times. “It makes clear that under Donald Trump, United States foreign policy is for sale.”
They are not the only ones who criticize the president. Even in Trumpist circles, voices have emerged against the transaction. “If the information that has been published are correct, this is worrying … Qatar is not our friend,” said activist and blogger Laura Loomer, one of the voices to which the president pays special attention, to the digital Political.
“I understand that you do not want to load the US taxpayer with 400 million dollars. But it will complicate foreign policy on the designation of the Muslim brothers as a terrorist organization, something that was promised and was not fulfilled in Trump’s first mandate. It is the great pending issue in Trump’s trip to the Middle East,” Loomer added.
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