The Trump administration plans to accept a luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet as a gift from Qatar's royal family—a plane that President Trump would use as Air Force One while in office and as his personal airliner afterward. Valued at roughly $400 million before it's outfitted with presidential communications and security tech, the 13-year-old plane could represent the largest gift ever to the US government by a foreign nation, ABC News reports. The president would accept the plane this week in Qatar. The administration's maneuvers to address the ethical and legal issues involved include:
- Acceptance: The Defense Department would accept the plane as a gift, transferring it to the US Air Force, which will have the modifications made.
- Ownership: The plane will then be turned over to the Trump Presidential Library Foundation no later than Jan. 1, 2029. The Air Force will cover any costs incurred by the transfer. Trump could then keep using the plane as a private citizen.
- Rationale: Government lawyers have concluded that because the donation isn't connected to any official US act, this process would not violate bribery laws or the Constitution's prohibition on government officials accepting gifts "from any King, Prince or foreign State," per ABC.
- The Reagan model: The process is based on Ronald Reagan's, per the New York Times. After the plane he used as Air Force One was retired, Reagan's presidential library received it. Reagan didn't fly on it anymore, though; it was displayed in the museum section of his library in California.
Trump was given a tour of the plane in February, when it was parked at the Palm Beach airport. Even with the modifications planned, an official briefed on the plane told the AP it would not have all the capabilities of the jets that were built to serve as Air Force One. The plane would not be able to refuel in the air, for instance. Trump has grown impatient with Boeing, which is behind schedule in delivering the two new planes ordered to replace the ones that fly the president now, both of which are more than 30 years old. (More Trump administration stories.)
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