There are gifts that are just gifts and there are gifts from the government currently mediating your nuclear talks with the country you went to war with in February, and the new Air Force One is the second kind.
Trump boarded his newly retrofitted presidential aircraft this morning at Joint Base Andrews and flew to Medora, North Dakota, for the opening of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library. The plane is a Boeing 747-8i. It was donated by the government of Qatar. Qatar is a country whose government is also currently hosting U.S.-Iran nuclear negotiations in Doha, mediating between the administration that accepted the plane and the Iranian government that refuses to meet American officials face to face. The talks are happening. The plane was already on the tarmac.
According to Fox News, Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews: “This will be the first flight of what I think is maybe the greatest commercial plane ever built. I said to Boeing, what’s the best one? He said, ‘this is the best plane ever built, and you’re going to have the privilege of flying it.'” He added: “I’m excited about the first flight. It’s something nobody’s ever seen anything like it. Even you people, with all your experience and all of your talents, you will never see anything like it.” He said this about the plane. Which Qatar gave him. Which he is flying to a presidential library named after a president who was famous for not accepting gifts from people who wanted things from his government.
The Boeing 747-8i was gifted by Qatar and refurbished for presidential use, a process that reportedly cost an additional sum in the tens of millions. Per Fox News, the plane will be donated to Trump’s presidential library after his term ends, which means Qatar is donating a $400 million aircraft to the museum that will commemorate the presidency during which Qatar was simultaneously hosting nuclear talks. The library will have the plane. The plane will have a plaque. The plaque will presumably mention Qatar.
Theodore Roosevelt, at whose presidential library Trump is arriving on the Qatari plane today, was so committed to refusing gifts from parties with business before his administration that he returned a $50,000 donation from a sugar trust and required his staff to return Christmas presents from lobbyists. Roosevelt is not available for comment. The plane is already in North Dakota.
When the plane that flies the president was given by the government currently hosting his nuclear talks, what exactly is the arrangement?
Sources
Fox News: Trump takes inaugural flight aboard new Air Force One to North Dakota ahead of library debut
Fox News live: US-Iran peace talks July 1
