May 21 (UPI) — The United States on Wednesday formally accepted a luxury Boeing 747-8 jet valued $400 million from Qatar to convert as Air Force One, the Defense Department confirmed Wednesday.
Afterward, President Donald Trump in the Oval Office called the gift “a great thing” and said Qatar handed over the plane “so they could help us out.” Last week Trump announced plans for the gift from the Middle East nation to replace one of the 35-year-old Boeing jets used for the president.
The Qatari royal family used the 13-year-old plane, and Trump examined it in February in West Palm Beach. It is now at San Antonio International Airport, the Express-News reported.
Secretary of State Pete Hegseth “has accepted a Boeing 747 from Qatar in accordance with all federal rules and regulations,” chief Pentagon spokesperson said in a statement to media, including The New York Times, The Hill and CNBC.
“The Department of Defense will work to ensure proper security measures and functional-mission requirements are considered for an aircraft used to transport the President of the United States.”
The White House has said that the plane will be transferred to Trump’s presidential library at the end of his term. The library hasn’t been built yet, and Trump has denied plans to fly in the plane after leaving office.
Democrats and some Republicans have said this amounts to bribery, and aerospace experts have said it would cost more than $1 billion to retrofit the plane for the president. The work, which will last a few years, would be done by Boeing.
“Today marks a dark day in history: the President of the United States of America officially accepted the largest bribe from a foreign government in American history to the tune of a luxury $500 million 747 from Qatar,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement Wednesday. “This unprecedented action is a stain on the office of the presidency and cannot go unanswered.”
He has introduced legislation to bar any foreign aircraft from being used as Air Force One and to hold up political Department of Justice nominations.
“The Constitution specifically says you can’t take gifts from foreign leaders,” Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said on Fox Business Network on May 13.
The U.S. Constitition’s emoluments clause reads: “No Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.”
But Trump has defended accepting the gift, saying it was not given to him.
“I just want to say, it was a radical left story,” Trump told Fox News in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, last week. “The people here, to show you how crazy it is, they would like me to pay a billion dollars.”
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani on Tuesday said the gift was “done in full transparency and very legally.”
Last week while Trump was in Qatar, Boeing and GE Aerospace from Qatar Airways announced a $96 billion agreement to provide as many as 210 American-made Boeing 787 Dreamliner and 777X aircraft, which are powered by GE Aerospace engines.
In 2018 when Trump was president, the U.S. government signed a $3.9 billion contract with Boeing for two new Air Force One aircraft, VC-25B.
Whenever the president flies on a jet, it is designated as Air Force One.
Project overruns have hit $2.4 billion, and project is years behind schedule from a planned 2024 completion date.
Boeing now says it can deliver them by 2027, which may been sooner than modifying the gift from Qatar.
“We’ve also relieved some of the security requirements for the production facility for a period of time,” Darlene Costello, the Air Force’s acting acquisition chief, said during a House Armed Services subcommittee hearing earlier this month. “It will not be a permanent relief, but that has enabled Boeing to be more efficient and productive in assembling the aircraft and getting their mechanics to do the work.”
