President Donald Trump defended the controversial luxury jet gift from Qatar as “a gesture of good faith” despite criticism that the offer would run afoul of U.S. ethics and law.
“I think that was a very nice gesture,” Trump said during a Monday morning press conference in the Roosevelt Room. “Now, I could be a stupid person, say, ‘Oh no, we don’t want a free plane.’ We give free things out. We’ll take one, too, and it helps us out.”
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“They’re giving us a free jet. I could say, ‘No’ … or I could say, ‘Thank you,’” Trump added.
Trump brought up professional golfing great Sam Snead to make the point that the United States shouldn’t turn down something free. “When they give you a putt, you pick it up and you walk to the next hole and say thank you very much,” Trump said of what he called Snead’s motto.
Trump took off for a visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates on Monday, his first state visit of his second administration.
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But reports that Qatar could gift the Trump White House the super luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet to be used as an Air Force One presidential plane have somewhat overshadowed the trip.
The gift, a $400 million offer, has enraged Democrats.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), a vocal anti-Trump Democrat, slammed the gift on social media as “wildly illegal.”
ABC News reported the news on Sunday, but Qatari officials have claimed the report is “inaccurate.”
“The possible transfer of an aircraft for temporary use as Air Force One is currently under consideration between Qatar’s Ministry of Defense and the U.S. Department of Defense, but the matter remains under review by the respective legal departments, and no decision has been made,” Ali Al-Ansari, Qatar’s media attaché to the U.S., told Politico.
Yet Trump remained unfazed by the criticisms that the offer is unethical.
“I think it’s a great gesture from Qatar. I appreciate it very much. I would never want to turn down that offer,” Trump added.
The president also blamed Boeing’s slowness in building new aircraft in his defense of the Qatar gift.
“I think what happens with the plane is that, you know, we’re very disappointed that it’s taken Boeing so long to build a new Air Force One,” Trump said when asked by reporters about Qatar expecting a favor in return for the plane. “You know, we have an Air Force One that’s 40 years old.”
Trump said that once the plane is old and decommissioned, it would go to his future presidential library, much like an Air Force One aircraft on display at the Ronald Reagan presidential library in California.
“It’ll be like Ronald Reagan, they decommissioned them, you know, they get to a certain age, they decommission them,” Trump said. “It’ll go to my library. They’re talking about going to my library in years out.”
The legal details of the gift are still being hammered out, but the Justice Department has already decided that the jet wouldn’t violate the Constitution’s prohibition of any U.S. government official accepting gifts “from any King, Prince or foreign State.”
