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Days before leaving on a diplomatic tour of the Middle East, news reports surfaced that President Donald Trump planned to accept a Boeing 747-8 jet from the Persian Gulf emirate of Qatar to replace the aging Air Force One aircrafts currently used by the president.
But the proposed gift has raised a maelstrom of legal questions from Democrats, who say the gift would need the approval of Congress or would otherwise be a violation of the Constitution.
Trump said it would be “stupid” not to take the gift, which the administration has said would be accepted by the Department of Defense and later donated to Trump’s presidential library after he leaves office.
A legal expert told us a gift to the U.S. government for use as Air Force One would be legal, but donating it to the Trump library would be illegal.
Here, we explore the legal and other questions surrounding this gift.
Democrats’ Claims
Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, who serves on the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, said in a May 11 post on X, “Trump must seek Congress’ consent to take this $300 million gift from Qatar. The Constitution is perfectly clear: no present ‘of any kind whatever’ from a foreign state without Congressional permission. A gift you use for four years and then deposit in your library is still a gift (and a grift).” (The Qatari jet would actually be valued at about $400 million if it were new, according to the New York Times.)
Raskin was referring to the Constitution’s foreign emoluments clause, which states, in part: “And 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.” The purpose of the emoluments clause is to prevent officeholders from being improperly influenced through the receipt of gifts.
Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman of New York told CNN that accepting the gift from Qatar “is brazen corruption, a violation of the Constitution, the Foreign Emoluments clause. It is a gift from a foreign government that is expressly not permitted under the Constitution.”
Another Democrat, Rep. Ritchie Torres of New York, has sent a letter to the Government Accountability Office comptroller general, the Department of Defense acting inspector general and the Office of Government Ethics acting director seeking an ethics review of Trump’s plan to accept the gift, which Torres said “would constitute the most valuable gift ever conferred on a president by a foreign government.”
In addition, Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut said on May 13 that he would introduce a resolution of disapproval condemning acceptance of the gift by Trump, which could force a vote on the Senate floor, the Hill reported.
Addressing Democrats’ concerns about the gift from the Qatari royal family, Trump said in a May 11 Truth Social post: “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. Anybody can do that! The Dems are World Class Losers!!!”
So far, however, this has not been a “transparent transaction,” as Trump claimed.
Attorney General Pam Bondi, who served as a paid lobbyist to Qatar in 2019 and 2020, has not publicly explained the legal path in accepting the gift from Qatar, according to the New York Times.
“A person familiar with the matter said that Ms. Bondi had personally signed a Justice Department memo blessing the plan as lawful, although the person added that it had been drafted and cleared by lawyers in the department’s Office of Legal Counsel,” the Times reported.
ABC News reported that, according to sources, lawyers for the White House counsel’s office and the Justice Department “drafted an analysis for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth concluding that is legal for the Department of Defense to accept the aircraft as a gift and later turn it over to the Trump library.”
The Times also reported that the Defense Department’s plan calls for the aircraft to serve as Air Force One until the end of Trump’s term, at which time it would be transferred to the Trump library and museum foundation.
We reached out to the Department of Justice for a further explanation regarding the legal arrangement for the gift from Qatar, but did not receive a response.
As of May 11, Qatar’s media attaché, Ali Al-Ansari, said the transfer of the jet to the U.S. was still under consideration by Qatar and the Defense Department.
Legality of the Gift
Determining whether the Qatari gift is legal depends on who receives it and how it is ultimately used, explained David Super, a professor of law and economics at Georgetown University Law Center.
“If it is a gift to the president, it is clearly not legal,” Super told us. “If, as the president has said, it is a gift to the United States government, that would be legal. But if there’s a proviso as has been reported that [the aircraft] would be made available to the president after he leaves office” as a part of his library museum, “then it would be illegal.”
Trump has said the jet would be decommissioned after he leaves office and donated to his presidential library. He noted that a similar arrangement was made for the Air Force One used by President Ronald Reagan, which was decommissioned in 2001 and presented to the Reagan museum. That aircraft was not a gift to Reagan from a foreign nation.
Asked by a reporter at a press conference on May 12 if he planned to use the aircraft after he left office, Trump said, “No, I don’t. No. It would — it would go directly to the library after — after I leave office.”
Regarding the Democrats’ claims that the gift would violate the emoluments clause, Super said that a gift to the U.S. government would not be a violation. “Many things are given to the government for the government’s use, and the standard approach under the law is when someone gives a gift to the president, the president accepts … but is doing so on behalf of the United States.”
If the president “wants to keep it, the president actually has to buy it from the United States,” Super added. “If Mr. Trump wanted to buy it from the government at the conclusion of his term, there might be some national security issues there, but otherwise that would be in accordance with the law.
“But in this case, it would be donated to an entity that he controls and would use it for his benefit,” making such a donation illegal.
Democrats have also said the gift from Qatar must be approved by Congress. “If any part of this is a gift to Mr. Trump personally, yes,” it would need congressional approval, Super said. “But I’m not aware of any law that would require approval of a gift to the United States. The United States does receive gifts. Every year people leave their estate to the United States, and that’s fine.”
Richard Painter, a law professor at the University of Minnesota who served as the White House ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush, told the Hill that under the arrangement that has been reported Trump “needs the consent of Congress, and if he can’t get consent of Congress, then he can’t accept it.”
“Congress could have some questions about what’s going on here, legitimate questions, about, why are we receiving this plane?” Painter said.
Cost of Retrofitting the Qatari Aircraft
At the May 12 press conference, which focused on Trump’s executive order aimed at lowering prescription drug costs, the president said he has been waiting since his first term for Boeing to replace the decades-old aircrafts used by the chief executive.
The two 747s that currently serve as Air Force One are about 35 years old. Boeing had been under contract to deliver new aircraft by 2024 for a cost of $3.9 billion, but the company has blamed delays on the bankruptcy of a supplier, high worker turnover and supply chain disruptions caused by the pandemic, the Washington Post reported.
In his May 11 post on Truth Social, Trump said the gift from Qatar would be offered “free of charge.” But the 747 formally used by the Qatari royal family would require considerable and costly upgrades. The overhaul would include adding a presidential communications system, self-defense technology and electromagnetic shielding, Politico reported. Kevin Buckley, a former Air Force official, told Politico that “the presidential mission equipment is unique.”
Democratic Rep. Joe Courtney of Connecticut, who serves on the House Armed Services Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee, told Politico, “You’d basically have to tear the plane down to the studs and rebuild it to meet all the survivability, security and communications requirements of Air Force One. It’s a massive undertaking — and an unfunded one at that.”
The cost of the retrofit is “in the tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars,” Andrew Hunter, a former Air Force acquisitions chief, said.
Republican Backlash
Some Republicans and loyal Trump supporters have raised other concerns about accepting the gift from Qatar.
Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas told CNBC that use of an aircraft from Qatar “poses significant espionage and surveillance problems.”
He also said, “I’m not a fan of Qatar. I think they have a really disturbing pattern of funding theocratic lunatics who want to murder us, funding Hamas and Hezbollah. And that’s a real problem.”
Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, noting Qatar’s past financial support for terrorist organizations while currying the favor of American politicians, called Trump’s decision to accept the jet “shady behavior” that “undermines his agenda and credibility,” according to The Wrap.
Staunch Trump ally Laura Loomer also condemned accepting the aircraft from Qatar.
Trump himself in 2017 referred to Qatar as a sponsor of “Radical Ideology,” and he supported an economic and diplomatic blockade of the nation.
At his May 12 press conference, however, when he spoke about the gift of the luxury jet, Trump said, “I have a lot of respect for the leadership and for the leader of Qatar.”
In recent years, the Trump Organization and members of the president’s family have reached deals with businesses in Qatar, including a Trump International Golf Club and villas near Doha, Axios reported.
Ethical Questions
Jacob T. Levy, a professor of political theory at McGill University, wrote in a Washington Post opinion column, “So how can the royal family of Qatar give Trump a $400 million ‘flying palace’ of a plane, one that will act as Air Force One during his presidency but remain his afterward?
“The answer lies in a problem that predates Trump: the presidential library system,” Levy wrote. The libraries are “established through private donations, from anyone, in any amount.”
“The Qatari plane will first be a time-limited gift to the Air Force. Shortly before Trump leaves office, after it has been upgraded at taxpayer expense, it will be transferred to the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Fund, which will then keep it available for the fund’s namesake. Presto: a gift to the Air Force becomes one to the library fund becomes a lavish lifetime perk for Trump personally,” Levy continued.
“As with donations to a presidential inaugural committee, gifts to the library fund fall between the cracks of campaign finance regulations and rules governing ethics in office.”
Super, the Georgetown law professor, told us, “The president has sweeping discretion on international affairs, and can make decisions that either serve or undermine Qatar’s interests in many ways. Having them give a $400 million gift to someone who’s exercising those powers, it creates a huge conflict of interest. I should note that the president’s lawyers have been asserting that he has especially broad authority in international affairs and is not subject to review by anyone else. So having someone with effectively unreviewable authority who can help or hurt Qatar receive such a gift is profoundly unethical.”
Whether or not Trump’s acceptance of the gift is unethical is, of course, a matter of opinion.
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