GOLD QATARI 747

 

Trump’s Air Force One deal with Qatar not final, despite U.S. claims 28MAI25

 HERE'S a big surprise, NOT MY pres drumpf / trump and his fascist administration LIED to us about how this "gift" from the brutal authoritarian government of Qatar came to be. Qataris are not our friends, they are not even trust worthy allies. But then NOT MY pres drumpf / trump, NOT MY vp vance and their fascist authoritarian administration, all corrupt, all greedy aren't our friends either, and that is sad. We can only continue to fight to save our democratic Republic in the courts, the U.S. Congress and the upcoming elections and pray for help in defeating our ongoing national nightmare. From the Washington Post.....

Trump’s Air Force One deal with Qatar not final, despite U.S. claims

The delay reflects lingering concerns about legal liabilities stemming from a White House maneuver to transform what was originally a sale between two countries into a “gift.”

May 28, 2025 at 8:02 p.m. EDTYesterday at 8:02 p.m. EDT

By John Hudson

, 

Natalie Allison

, 

Dan Lamothe

 and 

Ellen Nakashima

Despite claims by the Defense Department to the contrary, legal teams representing the U.S. and Qatari governments have not finalized an agreement for transferring the luxury Boeing 747-8 jetliner that President Donald Trump wants for Air Force One amid outstanding requests by Qatar for Washington to clarify the transaction’s terms, said officials familiar with the matter.

Qatar is insisting that a memorandum of understanding between Washington and Doha specify that the aircraft’s transfer was initiated by the Trump administration and that Qatar is not responsible for any future transfers of the plane’s ownership, these people said.

The delay reflects lingering concerns about legal liability stemming from the White House maneuver to transform what was originally a sale between two countries into a “gift” that Trump continues to tout as a major deliverable from his recent trip to the Middle East.

“[I] got a beautiful big magnificent free airplane for the United States Air Force,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday. “Very proud of that.”

The outstanding legal work is not expected to scuttle the plane deal, the officials said, but the clarifications are likely to invite further scrutiny of the administration’s claims about how the deal originated.

Trump initially said it was Qatar that reached out and offered him the luxury jet free of charge. In fact, it was the Trump administration that first approached Qatar this winter about acquiring the plane through a sale after the president made clear to aides that he was upset about delays of two Boeing jets purchased during his first term for $3.9 billion, officials said. Discussion about the sale later evolved into Qatar agreeing to provide the plane as a gift, a development reported previously by CNN and the New York Times.

A White House official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive topic, confirmed that the details of the plane transfer are still being finalized.

Anna Kelly, a spokeswoman for the White House, said there is no question, however, that the plane will be given to the United States free.

“As the president has said, this will be a sovereign-to-sovereign gift to the U.S. Air Force,” Kelly said in a statement to The Washington Post.

In recent weeks, Qatar has faced intense criticism from Democrats and some Republicans for the luxury jet arrangement. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut) and a group of fellow Democrats introduced legislation to block $1.9 billion in arms sales to Doha unless the offer was rescinded.

“It’s an illegal bribe that the President of the United States is champing at the bit to accept. That’s unconstitutional and not how we conduct foreign policy,” Murphy said at the time.

House Democrats, led by Rep. Gregory W. Meeks (D-New York), have introduced their own legislation that would block federal funds from being used to transfer a foreign country’s plane to the U.S. government or to Trump’s presidential library, as administration officials suggested he would do upon leaving office.

Democrats were particularly outraged about plans for the jet, appraised at roughly $180 million, to be transferred to Trump’s presidential library. Trump suggested on Wednesday that his critics were wrong to worry about that, noting that the mega jet would be far too large for personal use.

“They tried to say, ‘Oh, it’s Trump’s airplane,’” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “Oh, yeah, sure. It’s too big. It’s frankly, it’s too big. Much too big.”

White House Counsel David Warrington, however, wrote a memo in early March stating that the Defense Department could accept a gift of the plane from Qatar in two phases, initially to the U.S. government and then later to the Trump Presidential Library Foundation once Trump left office, said two people familiar with the matter.

It had appeared that the legal work was finalized last week after Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement that the “secretary of defense has accepted a Boeing 747 from Qatar in accordance with all federal rules and regulations.” But the last communication between the legal teams was May 9, and they had not concluded their work, officials said.

The Defense Department declined to comment.

Trump’s determination to complete the deal has been apparent to his aides since he toured the aircraft on Feb. 15 at the Palm Beach International Airport and admired its interior, officials said. “They’re giving it to me,” Trump remarked to those around him.

Trump “loved it,” when he saw the aircraft in person, finding it far more updated, modern and spacious than the existing planes used for Air Force One, and appreciating that there were “more work stations” available on the new jet for him and his aides to use, a second White House official said.

Scrutiny of the plane deal since it was announced, just before Trump’s visit to Qatar, has not deterred the president or his team, the White House official added. “Everyone thinks that we’re scared of the plane situation, that we’re not really going to do it,” the official said. “We’re looking forward to it. Everyone is going to love it. The press is going to love it. We’re not cowardly.”

The Trump administration has commissioned the defense contractor L3Harris to retrofit the Qatari plane and bring it into compliance with the rigorous safety and security standards for presidential transport. The work is to be done in Texas.

After Trump toured the jet, Air Force officials reviewed the aircraft and found that it was “very poorly maintained” and would require millions of dollars just to bring it up to satisfactory maintenance conditions, said one person familiar with the matter. The Air Force assessed then that there was no way the jet could ferry the president in its current state.

The Air Force estimated then that it could cost $1.5 billion to meet those requirements. To then remove the military gear and convert it for civilian use after Trump leaves office could cost an estimated $500 million, said two people familiar with the matter.

One of these officials said it was unclear if those estimates still hold true, because the president has the authority to waive certain requirements, former U.S. officials said.

“If the president said, ‘I want this in a year and a half, and I don’t care what capabilities it has as long as it’s a luxury flying palace with my colors on it,’” then it can be done, said former Air Force secretary Frank Kendall. But he’ll have to waive some security requirements, which he can do, Kendall said. “He’s the commander in chief. Nobody’s going to make him have those features.”

+1

By John Hudson

, 

Natalie Allison

, 

Dan Lamothe

 and 

Ellen Nakashima

UPDATE: U.S. CONSTITUTION, ARTICLE 1, SECTION 9, CLAUSE 8 & Defense Department Accepts Boeing 747 from Qatar for Trump's Use 21MAI25

 

Defense Department Accepts Boeing 747 from Qatar for Trump's Use

Associated Press | By Lolita C. Baldor

Published May 21, 2025 at 2:52pm ET

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has accepted a luxury Boeing 747 aircraft from Qatar for President Donald Trump to use as Air Force One, the Pentagon said Wednesday, despite ongoing questions about the ethics and legality of taking the expensive gift from a foreign nation.

The Defense Department will “work to ensure proper security measures” on the aircraft to make it safe for use by the president, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said. He added that the plane was accepted “in accordance with all federal rules and regulations.”

Trump has defended the gift, which came up during his recent Middle East trip, as a way to save tax dollars.

“Why should our military, and therefore our taxpayers, be forced to pay hundreds of millions of Dollars when they can get it for FREE,” Trump posted on his social media site during the trip.

Others, however, have said Trump's acceptance of an aircraft that has been called a “palace in the sky” is a violation of the Constitution’s prohibition on foreign gifts. Democrats have been united in outrage, and even some of the Republican president’s GOP allies in Congress have expressed concerns.

They also have noted the need to retrofit the plane to meet security requirements, which would be costly and take time.

"Far from saving money, this unconstitutional action will not only cost our nation its dignity, but it will force taxpayers to waste over 1 billion in taxpayer dollars to overhaul this particular aircraft when we currently have not one, but two fully operational and fully capable Air Force One aircraft," said Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill.

She said during a hearing Tuesday that it is a “dangerous course of action” for the U.S. to accept the aircraft from the Qatari ruling family.

Air Force Secretary Troy Meink told senators that Hegseth has ordered the service to start planning how to update it to meet needed standards and acknowledged that the plane will require “significant” modifications.

The Air Force, in a statement, said it is preparing to award a contract to modify a Boeing 747 aircraft, but that any details are classified.

Trump was asked about the move Wednesday while he was meeting in the Oval Office with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. “They are giving the United States Air Force a jet,” Trump said, bristling at being questioned about the gift by a reporter.

Trump said it was given “not to me, to the United States Air Force, so they could help us out” and noted that “Boeing’s a little bit late, unfortunately."

Ramaphosa, who was sitting next to Trump in the Oval Office and has been working to repair his relationship with the president, said, “I’m sorry I don’t have a plane to give you.”

“If your country was offering the United States Air Force a plane, I would take it,” Trump said.

Trump has presented no national security imperative for a swift upgrade rather than waiting for Boeing to finish new Air Force One jets that have been in the works for years.

He has tried to tamp down some of the opposition by saying he wouldn’t fly around in the aircraft when his term ends. Instead, he said, the plane would be donated to a future presidential library, similar to how the Boeing 707 used by President Ronald Reagan was decommissioned and put on display as a museum piece.

___

Associated Press writers Tara Copp and Michelle L. Price in Washington contributed to this report.

MOTHER JONES DAILY: Pet-eating lies to deportation fears: Haitians in Trump’s crosshairs, We still don’t know what Kash Patel did as a consultant for Qatar, Jair Bolsonaro’s son has an idea for Trump: Send immigrants from Brazil to El Salvador next, Donald Trump’s conflicts of interest in the Middle East are staggering, The GOP's plan to defund Planned Parenthood would add $300 million to the deficit, Wall Street gutted Steward Health Care. Patients paid the price. 14MAI25

 

May 14, 2025 Hi. It’s Josh Sanburn, producer for More To The Story. You probably remember the moment: It came during a presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, when Trump accused Haitian immigrants of eating cats and dogs. In a campaign full of outrageous accusations, this one stood out. PolitiFact even named it the “lie of the year,” which, in an election season, really takes some doing. But it wasn’t just the fact that Trump’s statement was completely untrue. At its core was the racist notion that people from countries like Haiti are somehow unfit to be in the United States. An estimated 10,000 Haitian immigrants live in Springfield, Ohio. And today, Trump is attempting to revoke their legal status. The moves by the White House are being challenged in court, but they’re all causing chaos and confusion in places like Springfield. One immigrant living there is Lindsay Aime, co-founder of the Haitian Community Help and Support Center. On this week’s episode of More To The Story, host Al Letson sits down with Aime to discuss that ugly moment during the election, how the community is coping with the threat of deportation, and why returning to Haiti for him personally is not an option. —Josh Sanburn

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Pet-Eating Lies to Deportation Fears: Haitians in Trump’s Crosshairs On this week’s “More To The Story,” an immigrant in Springfield, Ohio, discusses why returning to his home country is not an option. BY REVEAL

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We still don’t know what Kash Patel did as a consultant for Qatar BY DAVID CORN AND DAN FRIEDMAN Jair Bolsonaro’s son has an idea for Trump: Send immigrants from Brazil to El Salvador next BY ISABELA DIAS Donald Trump’s conflicts of interest in the Middle East are staggering BY RUSS CHOMA The GOP's plan to defund Planned Parenthood would add $300 million to the deficit BY JULIANNE MCSHANE

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Wall Street gutted Steward Health Care. Patients paid the price. One of America’s biggest for-profit hospital operators is bankrupt, broken, and responsible for countless mistreated patients—thanks to its private equity overlords. BY HANNAH LEVINTOVA, WITH DATA ANALYSIS BY MELISSA LEWIS

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