No, Qatar‘s royal family gifting a $400 million Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet known as a “flying palace” to the government that will reportedly then go to Donald Trump‘s presidential library is not the same as France giving the Statue of Liberty to the American people. But that is what Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent tried to claim on Sunday.
“Even if Qatar isn’t asking for anything in return now for the jet, I mean, that’s a bill that could come due,” Jake Tapper, host of CNN’s State of the Union said to Bessent. “Nobody… just gives a $400 million jet just to be nice.”
“Well, I don’t know, Jake,” Bessent said. “The French gave us the Statue of Liberty. The British gave us the Resolute Desk. I’m not sure they asked for anything in advance.”
“The more important airplane deal was, there’s $100 billion of orders from Qatari airlines to Boeing. … So I think that that plane deal is much more important than this other one,” Bessent added.
“Well, I will just say about the Statue of Liberty, I mean, that was authorized by Congress and it belongs to the American people,” Tapper said. It doesn’t belong to whoever was president at the time.”
Bessent’s argument echoes conservative influencers like Ann Coulter, whose X post making the comparison was fact checked in a community note that pointed out that, unlike the plane, Congress authorized the acceptance of the Statue of Liberty.
Further, the people of France gave the statue to the American people, and it became a public monument that the public can access. The plane from Qatar, however, will be transferred from the U.S. Air Force to Trump’s presidential library, Trump has said. What that means exactly, remains to be seen. Will Trump continue to use the plane post-presidency? Will the public have access to it at the library? These details are not yet clear, although Trump has claimed he will not use it once he leaves office.
What is clear is that Trump himself has apparently made a promise to “protect” Qatar, a government that has helped to fund Hamas and has a history of buying political influence with its vast wealth.
“We have never had a relationship with Qatar as strong as it is now,” Trump said on his recent Middle East trip. “We are going to protect you.”
“We are going to protect this country,” he added. “It’s a very special place, with a special royal family. … They are great people and they are going to be protected by the United States of America.”
Constitutional experts have concerns about the gift potentially violating the emoluments clause, which states that federal officeholders cannot “accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State” without congressional approval.
“The gift of this particular plane, the principal enjoyment of which both during the next three and a half years… and then for the rest of his life would accrue only to Donald Trump,” University of Missouri law professor Frank Bowman told PolitiFact. “That’s an emolument, any way you slice it, because the benefit goes to one person.”
Bowman added that because ownership of the plane will reportedly transfer from the Air Force to Trump’s library, it “blows the notion that this is a gift to the country completely out of the water.”
“Acceptance of the Qatari aircraft would require the consent of Congress under the express terms of the Constitution,” Stanley Brand, Penn State-Dickinson Law School distinguished fellow in law and government, told PolitiFact.
National security experts also have raised potential issues with accepting the plane.
“I’m not accusing the Qatari government of anything. But on the other hand, you can’t rule out the presence of bad actors in this whole process, inserting listening devices,” aviation analyst and managing director of AeroDynamic Advisory Richard Aboulafia told NPR.
The jet is not the only gift going to Trump’s presidential library. Excess donations from Trump’s inaugural committee will also be transferred to the library, according to a Wall Street Journal source. Funds from Trump’s $22 million settlement with Meta (which owns Facebook) and $15 million settlement with Disney (which owns ABC News) will also go to Trump’s presidential library foundation. There is no indication how those funds will be used.
Trump attacked ABC News in a Truth Social post on Saturday night. ABC first reported the news of the plane from Qatar.
“Why doesn’t Chairman Bob Iger do something about ABC Fake News, especially since I just won $16,000,000 based on the Fake and Defamatory reporting of Liddle’ George Slopadopolus,” Trump wrote.
“Everyone, including their lawyers, has been told that ABC must not say that Qatar is giving ME a FREE Boeing 747 Airplane, because they are not,” Trump continued. “Instead, and as Fake News ABC fully knows and understands, this highly respected country is donating the plane to the United States Air Force/ Defense Department, AND NOT TO ME. By so doing, they are saving our country, and the American Taxpayer, hundreds of millions of dollars. ABC Fake News is one of the WORST.”
“I give these SleazeBags fair warning!” he threatened.
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