President Donald Trump is slated to "accept a super luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet from the royal family of Qatar," known as "a flying palace," ABC News reports. Attorney General Pam Bondi, along with White House counsel David Warrington, advised the Trump administration "it would be legally permissible' for the donation of the aircraft to be conditioned on transferring its ownership to Trump's presidential library before the end of his term, according to sources familiar with their determination," ABC News reports. The report describes the arrangement as "unprecedented," noting it raises "questions about whether it is legal for the Trump administration, and ultimately, the Trump presidential library foundation, to accept such a valuable gift from a foreign power."
Aviation industry experts told ABC the aircraft is estimated to value "about $400 million," not including the cost of retrofitting the craft with "the additional communications security equipment the Air Force will need to add to properly secure and outfit the plane in order to safely transport the commander in chief." ...
Democratic Pollster and Strategist Matt McDermott noted that just last week, "[the] Trump Organization announce[d] new $5.5 billion golf course in Qatar."
"Surely just a coincidence," McDermott wrote of Qatar's latest gift to the president.
This is the new normal and poorly thought out by the Qatar royal family. But if they have $400 million to spend on an octogenarian, this is their folly. Refitting the plane will take some time. Besides the specialized communications equipment, the planes POTUS fly have defensive apparatus and extra fuel tanks. The USSS and USAF will also spend time making sure there are no electronic bugs on the plane, as well as testing it under stressful conditions: simpleflying.com
#1 | POSTED BY C0RI0LANUS
You schilling for Boeing?
What are you talking about the US is going to RetroFit it to be AF1 because Boeing is so late and over budget on the ordered AF1.
This has been known for quite sometime, you gotta ask yourself why you being told and believing this narrative today?
www.cnbc.com
Air Force One Delay Sends Trump Plane Shopping
www.bloomberg.com
FFS, why is it so easy for you morons to accept a lie, but nearly impossible when all the facts are laid out you still continue to believe the lie
#17: Congressman Ritchie Torres (D-NY) is one of the first to equate this Qatari grift with Hamas. There are 1.5 million reasons why he would make that slanderous aspersion: images.squarespace-cdn.com
From Benjamin Wittes at Lawfare:
The Situation: A Used Plane That Needs Workwww.lawfaremedia.org
My concerns are probably not what you think they would be.
I haven't read the legal opinion on the subject co-written by our esteemed attorney general, Pam Bondi. It's apparently not public yet. But in any event, I'm not all that fussed about the legality of the deal.
I'm worried that Trump"of all people"is being ripped off by foreigners. . . .
First, the plane is 13 years old. You read that correctly. A piddling little Middle Eastern autocracy is trying to bribe our president with a used plane. Now my sense of national pride has taken a few hits over the last several years. I used to believe all that shining city on a hill garbage, for example; now I'll settle happily for a city that does not betray its friends and allies and kiss the asses of its enemies and whose people don't end up bankrupt and oppressed and dying of measles.
But guys, there are limits. According to ABC News, "The plane will initially be transferred to the United States Air Force, which will modify the 13-year-old aircraft to meet the U.S. military specifications required for any aircraft used to transport the president of the United States, multiple sources familiar with the proposed arrangement said."
In other words, we're getting a used vehicle that needs a whole lot of work. That's frankly beneath the national dignity of even our degraded status.
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