Trump's plan to accept free Air Force One replacement from Qatar raises ethical and security worries

WASHINGTON – For President Donald Trump, accepting a free Air Force One replacement from Qatar is a no-brainer.

“I would never be one to turn down that kind of an offer,” the Republican told reporters on Monday. “I could be a stupid person and say, ‘No, we don’t want a free, very expensive airplane.’”

Critics of the plan worry that the move threatens to turn a global symbol of American power into an airborne collection of ethical, legal, security and counterintelligence concerns.

“This is unprecedented," said Jessica Levinson, a constitutional law expert at Loyola Law School. "We just haven’t tested these boundaries before.”

Trump tried to tamp down some of the opposition by saying he wouldn't fly around in the gifted Boeing 747 when his term ends. Instead, he said, the $400 million 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.

“It would go directly to the library after I leave office," Trump said. "I wouldn’t be using it.”

However, that did little to quell the controversy over the plane. Democrats are united in outrage, and even some of the Republican president's allies are worried. Laura Loomer, an outspoken conspiracy theorist who has tried to purge disloyal officials from the administration, wrote on social media that she would "take a bullet for Trump” but said she's “so disappointed.”

Congressional Republicans have also expressed some doubts about the plan.

“My view is that it would be better if Air Force One were a big, beautiful jet made in the United States of America. That would be ideal,” said Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley.

And Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul flatly said he was a “No” on whether Trump should accept the plane. When asked to elaborate on his reasoning, Paul replied: “I don’t think it looks good or smells good.” The Republican shrugged when asked by a reporter if there were “constitutional questions.”

Trump will likely face persistent questions about the plane in the coming days as he travels to the Middle East, including a stop in Qatar.

Why does Trump want the Qatari plane?

The two planes currently used as Air Force One have been flying for nearly four decades, and Trump is eager to replace them. During his first term, he displayed a model of a new jumbo jet in the Oval Office, complete with a revised paint scheme that echoed the red, white and dark blue design of his personal plane.

Boeing has been working on retrofitting 747s that were originally built for a now-defunct Russian airliner. But the program has faced nearly a decade of delays — with perhaps more on the way — from a series of issues, including a critical subcontractor’s bankruptcy and the difficulty of finding and retaining qualified staff who could be awarded high-level security clearances.

The new planes aren’t due to be finished until near the end of Trump’s term, and he’s out of patience. He has described the situation as “a total mess," and he has complained that Air Force One isn't as nice as the planes flown by some Arab leaders.

"It’s not even the same ballgame," he said.

Trump said Qatar, which hosts the largest U.S. military base in the Middle East, offered a replacement plane that could be used while the government was waiting for Boeing to finish.

“We give free things out," he said. “We’ll take one, too.”

He bristled at suggestions that he should turn down the plane, comparing the potential gift to favors on the golf course.

“When they give you a putt, you pick it up and you walk to the next hole and you say, ‘Thank you very much,’” he said.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota expressed skepticism.

“I understand his frustration. They’re way behind schedule on delivering the next Air Force One,” the Republican told reporters. “Whether or not this is the right solution or not, I don’t know.”

Mississippi GOP Sen. Roger Wicker said that any plane “needs to be gifted to the United States of America."

He added that whether the U.S. should accept a Qatari plane warranted further inquiry. “There’ll be some questions about that, and this issue, I expect, will be vetted by the time a decision needs to be made,” he said.

Will the new plane be secure?

The Qatari plane has been described as a “palace in the sky,” complete with luxurious accommodations and top-of-the-line finishes.

But security is the primary concern when it comes to presidential travel. The current Air Force One planes were built from scratch near the end of the Cold War. They are hardened against the effects of a nuclear blast and include a range of security features, such as anti-missile countermeasures and an onboard operating room. They are also equipped with air-to-air refueling capabilities for contingencies, though it has never been utilized with a president on board.

A former U.S. official briefed on the Air Force One replacement project said that while it would be possible to add some features to the Qatari jet, there was no way to add the full suite of capabilities to the plane on a tight timetable.

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive program, said it would be a risk for presidents to fly on such a jet.

One of the most important features of Air Force One is the communications capabilities. Presidents can use the plane as a flying Situation Room, allowing them to respond to crises anywhere on the globe.

However, on Sept. 11, 2001, Republican President George W. Bush was frustrated by communications issues and ordered up massive technology upgrades over subsequent years to improve the president’s ability to monitor events and communicate with people around the world.

The new ones under development by Boeing are being stripped down so workers can replace the standard wiring with shielded cabling. They're also modifying the jet with an array of classified security measures and communications capabilities.

Because of the high standards for ensuring a president can communicate clearly and securely, there are fears that Trump would be compromising safety by rushing to modify the Qatari jet.

"Disassembling and evaluating the plane for collection/spy devices will take years,” William Evanina, who served as director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center during Trump’s first term, wrote on social media.

He said the plane should be considered nothing more than “a gracious presidential museum piece.”

Is any of this legal or ethical?

Even for a president who has blurred traditional lines around public service and personal gain, Trump's plans to receive a jumbo jet as a gift has rattled Washington.

The Constitution prohibits federal officials from accepting things of value, or “emoluments,” from foreign governments without congressional approval.

“This is a classic example of what the founders worried about," said Richard Painter, a law professor at the University of Minnesota and former White House ethics chief under Bush. “But I don’t think the founders anticipated it would get this bad.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News on Monday that the details of the donation are “still being worked out” but would be done “in full compliance with the law.”

She dismissed idea the idea that Qatar wanted to influence Trump.

“They know President Trump, and they know he only works with the interests of the American public in mind,” she said.

Trump faced a legal fight over emoluments during his first term, when he opened the doors of his D.C. hotel to lobbyists, business executives and diplomats. His lawyers argued that the founders didn’t intend to ban transactions representing an exchange of a service like hotel space for money, only outright gifts. But some ethics lawyers disagreed, and it’s not clear if Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines and other countries were paying full price or more for when they used the hotel.

In his second term, Trump's family business has been very busy overseas. In December, it struck a deal for two Trump-branded real estate projects in Riyadh with a Saudi firm that two years earlier it had partnered with for a Trump golf resort and villas in Oman. And in Qatar, the Trump Organization announced last month another Trump branded resort along the coast.

Four Democratic senators on the Foreign Relations Committee — Brian Schatz of Hawaii, Chris Coons of Delaware, Cory Booker of New Jersey and Chris Murphy of Connecticut — issued a statement saying Trump's plan “creates a clear conflict of interest, raises serious national security questions, invites foreign influence, and undermines public trust in our government."

"No one — not even the president — is above the law,” they said.

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Condon reported from New York. Associated Press writers Matt Brown, Lolita Baldor and Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.