The US has formally accepted a plane from Qatar for the Air Force One fleet, a gift that has drawn criticism including from some of President Donald Trump’s biggest supporters, reports the British broadcaster BBC.
The plane is a gift from the Qatari royal family and is worth an estimated 400 million dollars. The White House says the new plane will be handed over to Trump’s presidential library at the end of his term.
“The Secretary of Defence has accepted the Boeing 747 from Qatar in accordance with all federal rules and regulations,” Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, said in a statement on Wednesday.
The aircraft will have to be modified before it can be used as “Air Force One”, the official aircraft of the US President.
The additional safety systems and upgrades needed to carry the President, including the ability to withstand the electromagnetic pulse of a nuclear blast and in-flight refuelling, could take several years and could cost the American taxpayer up to one billion US dollars.
A WEEK AGO, TRUMP SAID IN JUSTIFYING THE DONATION: “THEY ARE GIVING US A GIFT”. THE PRESIDENT ADDED THAT IT WOULD BE “STUPID” TO REJECT THE PLANE.
The US Constitution contains a clause that prohibits public officials from accepting gifts from foreign governments without the consent of Congress. This gift has not been approved by Congress.
The President claims that the transfer of the aircraft is lawful because it is being given to the US Department of Defence and not to him personally. He also insisted that he would not use it after leaving office.
The current Air Force One fleet consists of two 747-200s in service since 1990, as well as several smaller 757s.
Trump had previously criticised the old planes and expressed his dissatisfaction with the aircraft manufacturer Boeing, which has a contract for the direct delivery of two 747-8s to the White House, which has been delayed. Shortly after the start of his second term, Trump quietly visited the Qatari plane, near his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach.
The President claims that no deal has been struck or that he will not benefit from it and that the plane is just a friendly exchange between two allied countries.
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman has also stated that the transfer “is a government-to-government deal.
“It has nothing to do with personal relations, either on the US side or on the Qatari side. It is between two ministries of defence,” he said.
But these statements have not at all diminished the criticism that has been voiced about the deal, including from several Trump allies in Congress and the right-wing media.
“I don’t think it’s worth giving the appearance of dishonesty, whether it’s dishonest or not,” Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky told Fox News.
“I wonder if our ability to judge [Qatar’s] human rights record will not be overshadowed by the fact of this great gift,” Paul said.
Another Republican Senator, Ted Cruz, said accepting the gift would create “significant espionage and surveillance problems”.