A certain art appears to me to underlie the deal under which the royal family of Qatar is donating “a super luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet from the royal family of Qatar — a gift that is to be available for use by President Donald Trump as the new Air Force One until shortly before he leaves office, at which time ownership of the plane will be transferred to the Trump presidential library foundation .” That is the “gift” reported by ABC News over the weekend. President Trump confirmed the “GIFT, FREE OF CHARGE” on social media. I take it that the redundancy is for emphasis, as in the come-on in department store offers: “free gift.” The Pentagon is described as the beneficiary of the gift “in a very public and transparent transaction.”
However, according to ABC News, the Wall Street Journal, and other news stories the “gift” is not outright to the United States government. Rather, it is to be transferred to the Trump presidential library at a later date. According to the New York Times story on the deal:
The model that the government is using for addressing the ethical issues raised by the donation…is the one followed by President Ronald Reagan’s presidential library when it received the Air Force One he had flown on after it was retired from use. But at the time, Mr. Reagan did not use the plane to fly around. It was set up in the museum portion of his library.
We will have to await the public disclosure of the terms of the “gift” to be sure. The administration seeks to avoid the prohibitions of the Constitution’s emoluments clause — quoting the Times again — “which prohibits federal officials from accepting financial benefits from foreign governments without congressional approval.”
President Trump was asked about the “gift” yesterday by the witless NBC’s Kristin Welker. Conservative media take President Trump’s response as a refutation of something.
President Trump on reports Qatar will gift him a 400 million dollar 747 to use as AF1:
“I could be a stupid person and say no, we don’t want a free expensive airplane. It was a great gesture and a gesture because of the fact that we have helped and continue to, we will continue… pic.twitter.com/aIZwMUpL8k
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) May 12, 2025
Recall that we are talking about a “gift” from the royal family of Qatar. President Trump’s comments put me in mind of the Luke’s comment to the cruel prison warden in Cool Hand Luke: “I wish you’d stop being so good to me.”
President Trump invokes the notion of a quid pro quo. He implies that the “gift” represents Qatar’s quo for our quid. The United States protects Qatar and the other Gulf states and Qatar now seeks to express its gratitude with this “gift.”
At least this injects an element of reality into the “transaction,” whatever it turns out to be. Qatar’s is a two-faced terrorist-supporting regime. Qatar has sought to compromise just about every every American citizen and every American institution worth compromising. With wealth beyond the dreams of avarice, that is how Qatar rolls. It makes perfect sense that the Biden administration designated it a major non-NATO ally of the United States.
Indeed, Qatar’s “gift” is so obvious in this sense that it may be giving Qatar pause. The Journal story quotes a Qatari statement:
Reports that a jet is being gifted by Qatar to the United States government during the upcoming visit of President Trump are inaccurate. 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,” said Ali Al-Ansari, Qatar’s media attaché to the U.S.
Dropping the purported or hypothetical quid pro quo rationale, President Trump analogized the “gift” to a “gimme” in golf.
Trump: “There was an old golfer named Sam Snead. And he had a motto. When they give you a putt, you say thank you very much, you pick up your ball, and you walk to the next hole. A lot of people are stupid. They say no, I insist on putting it. And then they putt and miss it.” pic.twitter.com/w73xcrxQ1Q
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) May 12, 2025
What quo might Qatar reasonably expect from the Trump administration in exchange for the generous Air Horse One quid? There will be no reconsideration of Qatar’s status as a major non-NATO ally of the United States, for one. Qatar’s support for Hamas and other terrorist groups is to be left unremarked, if not unchallenged. The Trump administration will not expose Qatar for what it is. President Trump will credit the “gift” as “a very nice gesture.” Indeed, he already has. No one in the administration will observe that there’s no such thing as a free $400 million plane.
