“President Trump on Monday defended the US government’s plan to accept a $400 million luxury jet from the Qatari royal family to be used as Air Force One, describing it as a ‘great gesture’ and saying that it would be ‘stupid’ to turn down, despite growing ethical concerns over the gift.” — The Boston Globe, 5/12/25
Once again, Democrats are up in arms about a supposedly unethical thing President Trump has done. This time, they’re claiming that Qatar giving the president a $400 million plane to use as Air Force One violates the Emoluments Clause. But the truth is, the Founding Fathers would have wanted President Trump to accept a luxury airplane from a foreign royal family.
Liberal legal scholars say the Constitution clearly prohibits any government official from accepting gifts from foreign monarchs, dignitaries, or governments. However, the Constitution doesn’t include anything about a foreign royal family giving an extravagant gift to the Department of Defense and then later to the president’s presidential library. And if that sounds like an obvious loophole, then that’s on the Founding Fathers for not anticipating and closing it.
To turn down a plane that Business Jet Traveler once ranked as the most lavish in the world would be stupid. What is President Trump supposed to do instead? Use $400 million of US taxpayer dollars to purchase an opulent jumbo jet with gold-plated walls and finishings? Alexander Hamilton would be rolling in his grave if he could see what’s become of our government.
Some worry that accepting a nearly half-billion-dollar aircraft from the Qataris may make the president feel like he must return the favor somehow. But when has Donald Trump ever held up his end of a bargain? If Donald Trump is savvy enough to score a free plane from the Qatari government by screwing them over and giving them nothing in return, isn’t that just good business? It’s not a quid pro quo if there’s no pro quo. Surely, a man as thrifty as Benjamin “A Penny Saved Is a Penny Earned” Franklin wouldn’t have objected to such an obvious bargain. Besides, when has pissing off an ally in the Middle East ever backfired?
As for the accusations of corruption, Trump has accepted this gift with nothing but the utmost openness and transparency. It’s not corruption if it’s done shamelessly in full view of the public eye. We haven’t read The Federalist Papers, but we’re pretty sure that’s in there somewhere.
President Trump has more important things on his plate than bickering with Democrats about whether or not he is brazenly accepting bribes from foreign countries. He has just finished securing a temporary landmark trade agreement with China by cleverly reverting to the exact same trade policy we had with China before his presidency began. Much like getting this free airplane, the China trade negotiations are just another feather in Donald Trump’s business cap.
Plus, the only reason President Trump is even accepting this plane is because Boeing is late on delivering the upgraded Air Force One planes they promised. And we all know Boeing has nothing more important it could be focusing on right now.
Receiving this luxury airplane from the Qataris is about more than whatever sections of the Constitution it might run afoul of. It’s about America’s status on the global stage. The president has rightly pointed out that America’s current Air Force One fleet feels outdated compared to the government planes of, say, the wealthy Arab states of the Persian Gulf. It’s humiliating that the president of our nation, the greatest nation in the history of the world, is forced to travel in an aircraft that isn’t every bit as opulent as those of the Saudi or Emirati royal families.
If anyone in America deserves to live like a king, isn’t it the president of the United States? Surely, when the Founding Fathers wrote the Emoluments Clause, they didn’t intend for it to be used to deprive the president of the status he so clearly deserves.