The Catarí flag airline, Qatar Airways, has signed the purchase to Boeing up to 210 aircraft during Donald Trump’s visit this Wednesday to Emirate. The agreement, which the president of the United States has described as “the greatest request” in the history of the aeronautical company and has estimated at 200,000 million dollars (about 179,000 million euros, although then the White House reduced the figure to less than half), it arrives in full controversy in Washington on the republican’s decision to accept that the Catarí royal family gave him a luxury boeing 747. That aircraft, whose donation unleashes enormous ethical and practical doubts, would be transformed into a presidential plane Air Force One, in an adaptation of the model that would need years and hundreds of millions of dollars to complete.
As in Saudi Arabia, the first stage of his tour of the monarchies of the Persian Gulf, Trump wanted to show off the signing of multiple, and juicy, economic agreements, the great objective of the presidential trip. In Riad, the Saudi capital, the Republican proclaimed the four winds worth $ 600,000 million, although how much of that amount will get to disburse itself is still an unknown.
In Doha, his team spread that the agreement with Qatar Airways is part of a series of pacts valued at 243.5 billion dollars. According to the White House, Trump has signed an agreement with the Qatari authorities to generate “an economic exchange valued at at least 1.2 billion dollars” that, “he says,” will “put the United States on the way to a new golden era.”
In his statement, the White House corrected the data Trump had given during the signature ceremony. The value of the purchase agreement of the airplanes is 96,000 million dollars, not 200,000, as the Republican maintained, and the Catarí airline will buy up to 210, not the 160 that the Republican had mentioned.
Among the pacts achieved in the defense sector, which include the supply of anti -drug equipment worth $ 1 billion and the purchase by Qatar of aircraft systems piloted per remote control worth 2,000 million dollars. “After the signing of these agreements we rose to another level of relationship,” said Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Bin Hamad Al Thani, during the lavish signature ceremony.
Trump: “Only a stupid would not accept a gift”
What does not appear in the public list of the pacts signed is the donation of the Catarí plane for the use of the US president, who in the last hours has defended again in social networks to accept the gift of a Boeing 747 from a foreign government is something perfectly lawful from the legal and ethical point. And that, in fact, according to him, it is “stupid” not to take advantage of the offer of a free aircraft given the contract delays that Boeing itself maintains to build two new Air Force One that replace those who are currently in use, who are already 40 years old. “Only a stupid would not accept this gift on behalf of our country,” Trump insisted. “Qatar wants us to reward us for a job well done,” he added.
But in addition to the enormous doubts that it raises from the ethical angle, the truth is that the operation would not come out for free, despite what Trump points out. According to highlight Air Force One United States. Providing it with the strict security and capabilities requirements of a presidential plane is a very complex, and very expensive task. So much or more than building a zero plane.
To begin with, given its foreign origin, piece by piece should be dismantled to examine each meticulously and determine that some type of listening mechanism has not been hidden. Then it would be necessary to reensate it and install a series of very specific equipment of the Air Force Onea flying strength that, when it is in use, also transforms into a presidential and custodian communications center of nuclear codes.
It would be necessary to install, among other things, a device so that it can refue in full flight. Another, to prevent their communications from intercepting. And enable areas for use in case of medical or other emergencies. Given the delicate of the reform, it could not be put in the hands of anyone: the operators who work in it would have to have a very specific training and very determined security credentials.
“You have to completely check the entire device. Disassemble it, check if you have listened to you, reinforce it to ensure that no one can do the control of electronic systems on the plane … (maintain) the president’s ability to send and control his troops in the worst days … For that many things are needed,” said an old military high control to the CNN, on condition of anonymity.
The process, in which different government departments would have to participate, especially the Pentagon, is so complex that it may require up to two years of work to adapt the catarí plane that is offered as a gift, which is 13 years old. By then it is possible that the two were ready Air Force One New that Boeing builds: After years of project delay, which has exceeded the initial costs, the aeronautics calculates that they could be ready, under certain circumstances, in 2027, before Trump concludes his mandate.
The cost of adaptation could exceed 1,000 million dollars, as three experts in the aviation sector to the NBC News television sector have explained. Much more than the value of a plane of the same commercial use model, around 400 million dollars. To this we should add maintenance costs.
Each Air Force One In construction it costs more than 2.5 billion dollars, to which 7,700 million are added in maintenance and development of operations throughout a useful life calculated in 30 years, according to internal calculations of the Pentagon.
The economic cost is not the only thing that raises criticism even among the republican bench itself, usually unconditional of Trump. It also presents clear questions from legal and ethical points of view. The US Constitution stipulates in its so -called “emolument clause” that the high positions of the United States, including the president, cannot accept gifts of governments or foreign leaders unless he has the express authorization of Congress.
The Catarí luxury plane generates the doubt that espionage and surveillance mechanisms have been installed, said Republican Senator Ted Cruz this Tuesday. Commentators who support Trump as Ben Shapiro have described as “doubtful” the use of the device and the activist and blogger Laura Loomer, to which Trump himself pays great attention, wrote on his social networks: “We cannot accept a ‘gift’ of 400 million dollars offered by tie jihadists.”
The idea is that Qatar gives the plane to the Department of Defense, which would be responsible for organizing the remodeling of Boeing 747 for use as a presidential plane. Before Trump’s mandate concluded, in 2029, he would give it to the Republican presidential library, which could use it for personal use after his output of the White House.
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