In Donald Trump’s first term, the president cultivated an unexpectedly amusing list of incidents related to airplanes. I actually maintained a list, documenting a curious array of stories in which the Republican suggested that F-35s are literally invisible, whined about the complexity of piloting, referenced F-52s that didn’t exist outside of video games, complained to members of Congress that the emir of Kuwait’s plane was bigger than his, and (among other things) got caught lying about Japan buying U.S. fighter jets and lying about Finland doing the same thing.
In his second term, the news at the intersection of Trump and planes is far less funny. NBC News reported:
The Trump administration is preparing to accept a superluxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet from the royal family of Qatar as a gift to be used by President Donald Trump as the new Air Force One for presidential travel until shortly before Trump leaves office, according to four sources familiar with the planning. Two of the sources also confirm that ownership of the plane will be transferred to the Trump presidential library foundation once the president ends his second term.
According to a report from ABC News, which was the first to break this story, Attorney General Pam Bondi and other Justice Department lawyers determined that the acceptance of the plane was legally permissible if the Qatari government gifts it to the Defense Department and it is later turned over to the Trump Library Foundation.
This is notable for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the attorney general’s recent professional background: Bondi used to work as a registered lobbyist for foreign clients, including the government of Qatar — the same government that’s apparently preparing to reward Trump with a jet. (Soon after Senate Republicans made her the nation’s chief law enforcement official, Bondi also disbanded the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force.)
It’s important to emphasize that the specific details of this arrangement are still coming into focus, and a spokesperson for Qatar’s government said that plans are not yet final. “The possible transfer of an aircraft for temporary use as Air Force One is currently under consideration between Qatar’s Ministry of Defense and the U.S. Department of Defense, but the matter remains under review by the respective legal departments, and no decision has been made,” Ali Al-Ansari, Qatar’s Media Attaché to the U.S., told Politico.
The intended beneficiary of Qatar’s apparent generosity, however, characterized the developments as a “fact” in an overnight missive published to his social media platform.
“So the fact that the Defense Department is getting a GIFT, FREE OF CHARGE, of a 747 aircraft to replace the 40 year old Air Force One, temporarily, in a very public and transparent transaction, so bothers the Crooked Democrats that they insist we pay, TOP DOLLAR, for the plane,” Trump wrote. “Anybody can do that! The Dems are World Class Losers!!! MAGA”
So let me see if I have this straight. The sitting American president is eager to accept the largest foreign gift in the history of the United States, which he intends to keep after he exits the White House, in defiance of the Emoluments Clause of the U.S. Constitution — a black-letter legal provision that the Republican is on record dismissing as “phony.” Trump is prepared to welcome a foreign government’s largess, even as that same country strikes private deals with the president’s family-run business.
This entire arrangement was approved by the president’s attorney general — who worked as a well-paid lobbyist for that same country. It’s against this backdrop that Trump wrote that his critics are “crooked.” Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, who’s spent months focusing on White House corruption, described these developments as “wildly illegal.” In theory, congressional Republicans — many of whom seemed quite concerned about Qatari gifts to American universities in the recent past — could easily come to the same conclusions. But it seems more likely that GOP lawmakers will again shrug with indifference.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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