By Joseph Ax
(Reuters) -The Trump administration intends to accept a Boeing 747-8 plane as a gift from the Qatari royal family that would then be outfitted to serve as Air Force One, ABC News reported on Sunday, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter.
The luxury plane, which would be one of the most valuable gifts ever received by the U.S. government, would eventually be donated to Donald Trump’s presidential library after he leaves office, ABC said. A new commercial 747-8 costs approximately $400 million.
Democrats and good government advocates condemned the reported plan, saying it raised massive ethical and legal concerns.
“Nothing says ‘America First’ like Air Force One, brought to you by Qatar,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer wrote on X. “It’s not just bribery, it’s premium foreign influence with extra legroom.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.
A Qatari spokesperson, Ali Al-Ansari, told the New York Times that news reports about the gift were “inaccurate” because the possible transfer of the aircraft was still under consideration and “no decision has been made,” the newspaper reported.
Trump has expressed frustration at the delays in delivering two new 747-8 aircraft to serve as an updated Air Force One. During his first term, Trump had reached a deal with Boeing to deliver the jets in 2024. A U.S. Air Force official told Congress last week that Boeing had proposed finishing the planes by 2027.
Trump toured the Qatari-owned 747-8 in February when it was parked at Palm Beach International Airport in Florida, near Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. At the time, the White House said the president did so to get a better understanding of how the updated Air Force One planes would be configured.
In a statement, a spokesman for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, a good government organization based in Washington, questioned whether the transfer might violate the Constitution’s ban on U.S. officials accepting gifts from foreign governments absent congressional approval.
“This sure looks like a foreign country that the president has personal business dealings in giving the president a $400 million gift right before he meets with their head of state,” the spokesman, Jordan Libowitz, said.
Trump is set to visit Qatar during a trip to the Middle East this week.
ABC reported, citing sources, that lawyers for the White House counsel’s office and the Department of Justice had prepared an analysis concluding that it would be legal and constitutional for the Defense Department to accept the plane as a gift and later transfer it to Trump’s presidential library.
(Reporting by Joseph Ax; Editing by Leslie Adler)
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