Past presidents could not keep gifts from lions or horses. How could Trump accept a jet from Qatar?

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When the sultans tried to give President Martin van Buren wasteful gifts, he did what the constitution demanded and asked the congress what to do.

Two living lions were given by the Sultan of Morocco in the US consulate in Tanger in Tangier in 1839, and the Sultan of Oman tried to give him “horses, pearls and other added value”, which were delivered by ships in 1840.

“I think it is my duty to put the proposal before the congress for such a disposition as they consider it appropriate,” wrote Van Buren to the legislators after he understood that he understood that such gifts were against the law.

In short, the congress said Van Buren that these gifts were not in order. The Lions finally went to a zoo and the horses were sold according to the Washington Post. The van Buren pearls are in Smithsonian.

According to President Donald Trump's logic, Van Buren was pretty stupid who fed up with 40-year-old jets. Trump would like to assume a lot of luxurious US dollars that the royal family of Qatar is used as Air Force One. This is the call sign for the aircraft that bears the president.

“I could be a stupid person and say:” Oh no, we don't want a free plane, “Trump said to report on Monday.” We spend free things. We will also take one. ”

After the end of Trump's term of office, the luxury jet in Trump's presidential library would go to Trump's presidential library when a long astonished brand new Air Force One-plane is ready.

The legal details are “still worked out,” said the White House on Monday. Qatar said that no decision had been made, and the White House insists that such a gift would not affect the president's decisions.

There are several main problems with Trump's plan.

If Trump would accept a luxury jet, he seems to violate the emolutionary clause of the constitution, which is pretty clear that a president has to ask the congress for permission.

Here is this language from the constitution:

No noblatic title is granted by the United States: And nobody has an office for profit or trust, which is observed among them, without the consent of the congress of the present, emolument, office or title of any kind, whatever, from a king, a prince or a foreign state.

The president has questioned the constitution several times since taking office, and in this case he can search for the administration of an additional immunity that the Supreme Court granted the president at request when he was confronted with criminal persecution last year. He also seems to believe that catar could offer him some cover when the plane gives the Pentagon.

“If we can use a 747 as a contribution to our Ministry of Defense in a few years while building the others, I think that this was a very nice gesture,” said Trump.

The Supreme Court rejected it to take an opportunity after Trump's last term to burden the question of the emments. Instead, judges said about payments that foreign governments at the Hotel in Washington, DC, had “had“ at that time.

“This consideration of his personal financial interests and his presidency caused some problems,” said Jessica Tillipman, professor at George Washington University Law School, during an appearance in CNNS “The Situation Room”. “There is a reason why past presidents either sold these interests or put them into blind trust, as this creates the concerns that a president may act for his own private profit about the public interest.”

The obvious ethical are beyond the legal questions, said Tillipman. Whenever Trump interacts with Qatar during his presidency, this gift will be part of the public conversation.

“We know that there is a gift, but in this Trump presidency there is still a long way to go to see if there could be a kind of official action,” she said.

Trump's shops, led by his son Eric, are actively expanding to the Middle East during his second term in the office. While Trump wants to accept Qatar Jet, his company is involved in the opening of a golf course with Trump brands in the country. His name will appear on skyscrapers in Saudi Arabia. And the VAE used a crypto system that was set up by one of Trump's company to complete an offer of 2 billion US dollars, according to the New York Times.

Trump's first major international journey of his second term begins this week in the Middle East. One wonders whether other countries will now try to find their own way to impress the US president. In this case, the opening offer is an aircraft of 400 million US dollars.

In addition to the ethical and legal questions that raise this, it is hard to believe that the secret service would ever trust an airplane that was used by a foreign government.

Graff wrote a book in which President George W. Bush was approved for eight hours with Air Force One as the only aircraft in the US airspace when the nation was attacked.

When he flies, there are several layers of layers of air around the president. Many of the details are classified, but Graff wrote about how impenetrable the area around the president should be.

“The idea of ​​putting an airplane in the center of all these protective rings and safe communication that has been under the control of a foreign government for more than a decade is unhappy, both from the perspective of the espionage deepening and from the perspective of physical security,” Graff wrote in his newsletter.

“Even if you would alleviate this risk from a listening, persecution, cyber security or sabotage perspective, the roaming of the aircraft would contain the equivalent of the tunnels -but even then I wouldn't put a US president onto this plane,” he wrote.

Air Force One upgrade late and over the budget

In order to have an idea of ​​how difficult it is to build an aircraft for the safety specifications in order to meet the US government, the supervision is a reason for the delay is the security check that is necessary for working on the jets.

Chris Isidore from CNN wrote about Boeing's problems with the project that started in 2018 during the first Trump administration and extends over its second before the planes are delivered. Boeing tries to move the timeline up.

Regardless of the ethical, legal and security problems with Trump's plan to accept an airplane from Qatar, there is also the strange fact that a president who launched a worldwide trade war on the basis of the national security concerns of the “America First” sees no problem with the assumption of charity organizations for president.

Although the Qatarian 747-B is not technically imported, it is an unpleasant coincidence that the US Ministry of Trade opened an investigation of the national security effects of importing aircraft in the early this month.

There was non -partisan criticism of the potential plan to accept the cataric aircraft.

“I think America can afford its own aircraft and build their own Air Force One,” said former Republican House spokesman Kevin McCarthy about CNN max.

Democrats were less diplomatic.

“This is only the latest reflection of a outrageous, corrupt presidency that uses the presidency office for his personal profit,” said Rep. Dan Goldman from New York during an appearance on CNN. “We would like to be sure that the President of the United States always acts in the interests of the United States sole interest and not on behalf of a foreign country.”