It has kind of disappeared from the headlines lately, but the gift of a jet to be used as Air Force One by the Qatari government is back.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) is now claiming that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth could be personally held responsible for having accepted the jet without the consent of Congress.
According to reports, this jet was actually offered prior to Trump taking office, but it was Trump who decided to take up the Qatari government on its offer.
The New York Times, at the time, reported, “The Trump administration plans to accept a luxury Boeing 747-8 plane as a donation from the Qatari royal family that will be upgraded to serve as Air Force One, which would make it one of the biggest foreign gifts ever received by the U.S. government, several American officials with knowledge of the matter said.
“The plane would then be donated to President Trump’s presidential library when he leaves office, two senior officials said. Such a gift raises the possibility that Mr. Trump would have use of the plane even after his presidency ends.”
I was among those who did not like the idea of taking the plane solely on the optics and cost to American taxpayers to refit a plan that will barely be in service, then turned over to Trump's library for display when the planes commissioned are ready for service.
In late May, the decision was made to accept the jet, but the usual approval by Congress for a gift of this size was circumvented.
Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said the Defense Department "will work to ensure proper security measures and functional-mission requirements are considered."
Democrats jumped all over this, with Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) stating, "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.”
Dems have been hammering the idea of this being a bribe because the Trump Organization has just significantly expanded its operations, now having a rather large footprint in the Middle East.
Since Raskin has not been getting the reaction from Trump that he wants, now he is setting his sights on Hegseth since, technically, it was Hegseth and the Department of Defense accepting the plane.
He stated, “I write now to urge and advise you to promptly mitigate these violations—and your own personal legal exposure—by either returning the plane to the Qatari government or promptly seeking Congress’s consent to accept it.”
He continued, “The Constitution is perfectly clear: no present ‘of any kind whatever’ from a foreign state without Congressional permission.”
The rules here are on the side of Democrats, so it will be interesting to see how Trump and Hegseth try to wiggle out of this. Ideally, they tell Qatar they cannot take the plane, as I just don’t want to see the taxpayers get stuck with a massive bill just so Trump can have a cool attraction at his museum.
