RT Mike Levin: To everyone celebrating the first flight on Qatar Force One today, understand what you are actually applauding. A foreign government ha...
A post criticizes the first flight of "Qatar Force One," claiming a foreign government gifted the sitting US president a $400 million plane, US taxpayers paid at least another $400 million to retrofit it, and ownership will transfer to his presidential library. It argues this would be a presidency-ending scandal in any other administration.
Background
- "Qatar Force One" is a derisive nickname for a Boeing 747 gifted by the Qatari government to former U.S. President Donald Trump. The term plays on "Air Force One," the official call sign for any U.S. Air Force aircraft carrying the president.
- The post's author, Mike Levin, is a Democratic U.S. Representative from California (D-CA) and a prominent Trump critic. The original post was shared by Paul Graham (co-founder of Y Combinator, a major Silicon Valley startup accelerator).
- U.S. law (the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution) generally prohibits presidents from accepting gifts from foreign governments without congressional approval. Critics argued the plane's transfer violated this clause, especially since Trump retained ownership for his presidential library rather than the plane becoming U.S. government property.
- Trump frequently faced accusations of blurring lines between his business interests and the presidency, including his hotels hosting foreign diplomats and his 2021 post-presidency retention of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.