Washington (AP) – President Donald Trump should accept a Boeing 747-8 Jumbo to a luxury gift from the executive family of Qatar During his trip to the Middle East the coming week, and American officials were able to convert the plane to a potential presidential plane.
ABC News reported What Trump will use the plane as a new version of Air Force One until recently before leaving office in January 2029, when the property is transferred to the Foundation supervising its presidential library still to be built.
The gift should be announced when Trump visits Qatar as part of a trip which also includes judgments in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the first prolonged foreign trip to its second term. The Qatari government did not immediately respond to a request for comments on Sunday evening.
Administration officials, anticipating questions about the president accepting such a gift from a foreign government, have prepared an analysis arguing that this would be legal, according to ABC. The emoluments clause of the Constitution, article I, article 9, clause 8, prohibits anyone occupies the government's office to accept any present, emolument, office or title of any “king, prince or foreign state”, without consent of the congress.
Trump intends to convert the Qatari aircraft into an airplane on which he can fly as president, the Air Force providing to add secure communications and other classified elements.
But he will always have more limited capacities than the existing planes that have been built to serve the Air Force One, as well as two other planes currently under construction, according to a former American official who was informed of the plane and spoke on Sunday under the cover of anonymity to discuss the plans that have not yet been made public.
The existing planes used as Air Force One are strongly modified with survival capacities for the president for a range of contingencies, in particular the shielding of radiation and anti -missile technology. They also include a variety of communication systems to allow the president to stay in touch with the military and to issue orders from anywhere in the world.
The official told the Associated Press that it would be possible to quickly add countermeasures and communication systems to the Qatari aircraft, but that it would be less capable than the existing Air Airplane of Force One or long-term replacements.
Neither the Qatari plane nor the next VC-25B plane will have the air supply capacities of the current VC-25A plane, which is the one on which the president is currently flying, said the official.
Air Force One is a modified Boeing 747. Two exist and the president steals on both, which are over 30 years old. Boeing Inc. has the contract to produce updated versions, but delivery was delayed while the company has billions of dollars lost on the project.
The delivery was pushed to a certain time in 2027 for the first plane and in 2028 – the last full year of Trump – for the second.
ABC said the new plane is similar to a 13 -year -old Boeing plane Trump did a tour in FebruaryWhile he was parked at Palm Beach International Airport and spent the weekend in his Mar-A-Lago club.
Trump's family business, the Trump organization, which is now widely led by his sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, has vast and growing interests in the Middle East. Which includes a New agreement to build A luxury golf complex in Qatar, in partnership with Qatari Diar, a real estate company supported by the sovereign fund of this country.
Qatar, which is governed by the Al Thani family, houses the state airline Qatar Airways. The country also worked to have a close relationship with Trump after apparently supporting a boycott of Doha by four Arab nations during its first mandate. Trump later in his term applauded Qatar.
Administration officials have rejected concerns about the president's political interests blurring with the family's trade benefits. They note that Trump's assets are in a trust managed by his children and that a voluntary ethical agreement published by the Trump organization in January prohibits the company from concluding agreements directly with foreign governments.
But this same agreement allows agreements with private companies abroad. It is a departure from Trump's first mandate when the organization published a Ethics Pact Prohibit both foreign government agreements and foreign companies.
The white house's press secretary Karoline Leavitt asked on Friday if the president on his next trip could meet people with his family business, said he was “ridiculous” to suggest that Trump “does anything for his own advantage.”
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The writer Associated Press Jon Gambrell in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.
