Trump reportedly set to accept jet from Qatar's ruling family
ABC News reported that Mr Trump will use the plane as a new version of Air Force One until shortly before he leaves office in January 2029, when ownership will be transferred to the foundation overseeing his yet-to-be-built presidential library.
The gift is expected to be announced when Mr Trump visits Qatar as part of a trip that also includes stops in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the first extended foreign travel of his second term.
Administration officials, anticipating questions about the president accepting such a large gift from a foreign government, have prepared an analysis arguing that doing so would be legal, according to ABC.
The Constitution's Emoluments Clause, Article I, Section 9, Clause 8, bars anyone holding government office from accepting any present, emolument, office or title from any 'King, Prince, or foreign State,' without congressional consent.
Mr Trump intends to convert the Qatari aircraft into a plane he can fly on as president, with the Air Force planning to add secure communications and other classified elements to it.
But it will still have more limited capabilities than the existing planes that were built to serve as Air Force One, as well as two other aircraft currently under construction, according to a former US official who was briefed about the plane and spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss plans that have not yet been made public.
The existing planes used as Air Force One are heavily modified with survivability capabilities for the president for a range of contingencies, including radiation shielding and anti-missile technology.
They also include a variety of communications systems to allow the president to remain in contact with the military and issue orders from anywhere in the world.
The official told The Associated Press that it would be possible to quickly add some counter-measures and communications systems to the Qatari plane, but that it would be less capable than the existing Air Force One aircraft or long-delayed replacements.
Neither the Qatari plane nor the upcoming VC-25B aircraft will have the air-to-air refuelling capabilities of the current VC-25A aircraft, which is the one the president currently flies on, the official said.
Air Force One is a modified Boeing 747. Two exist and the president flies on both, which are more than 30 years old. Boeing has the contract to produce updated versions, but delivery has been delayed while the company has lost billions of dollars on the project.
Delivery has been pushed to some time in 2027 for the first plane and in 2028 — Mr Trump's final full year in office — for the second.
ABC said the new plane is similar to a 13-year-old Boeing aircraft Mr Trump toured in February, while it was parked at Palm Beach International Airport and he was spending the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago club.
Mr Trump's family business, the Trump Organisation, which is now largely run by his sons, Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump, has vast and growing interests in the Middle East.
That includes a new deal to build a luxury golf resort in Qatar, partnering with Qatari Diar, a real estate company backed by that country's sovereign wealth fund.
Administration officials have brushed off concerns about the president's policy interests blurring with family's business profits. They note that Mr Trump's assets are in a trust managed by his children and that a voluntary ethics agreement released by the Trump Organisation in January bars the company from striking deals directly with foreign governments.
But that same agreement allows deals with private companies abroad. That is a departure from Mr Trump's first term, when the organisation released an ethics pact prohibiting both foreign government and foreign company deals.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, when asked on Friday if the president during his upcoming trip might meet with people ties to his family's business, said it was 'ridiculous' to suggest Mr Trump 'is doing anything for his own benefit'.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Telegraph
11 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Trump sends in troops in make-or-break moment for his immigration crackdown
Donald Trump's first presidency ended with city centres turned to blackened ghost towns. They looked not unlike Los Angeles on Sunday morning, where rioters had left graffiti and the ashes of burned cars in protest Five years ago it was a different cause. The US endured a long, hot summer of riots after police murdered George Floyd in Minneapolis, kneeling on his neck as he protested that he could not breathe. 'Looks so familiar,' Matt Schlapp, chairman of the Conservative Political Action Conference and a confidant of the US president, posted on social media. 'It's almost as if we saw the same tactics with a different radical topic and diff logo wear.' In 2020, Mr Trump threatened to take matters into his own hands if the country's governors did not stamp out violence, promising to deploy armed forces to quell the violence. Several states took heed and used their own authority to deploy their National Guard forces. This time around, as his immigration service takes a new, tougher tack in rounding up illegal immigrants, the president has not waited. With Los Angeles on fire, and protests growing in New York, he issued his presidential memorandum on Saturday night, in an effort to snuff out the violence before it could spread further. 'In the wake of this violence, California's feckless Democrat leaders have completely abdicated their responsibility to protect their citizens,' is how Karoline Leavitt, Mr Trump's press secretary announced it. 'That is why President Trump has signed a Presidential Memorandum deploying 2,000 National Guardsmen to address the lawlessness that has been allowed to fester.' One of the difficulties in 2020 was navigating the legal limits on presidents deploying troops on their own soil. Then Mr Trump floated using the nuclear option and invoking the Insurrection Act. It was last used in 1992, when George HW Bush used it to send troops into Los Angeles to control rioting at the request of California's governor after four white police officers were acquitted of beating up Rodney King, a black motorist. Using it without the consent of the state governor brings a whole other level of political jeopardy. Trump 2.0 has had time to find alternative tools. For four years his lawyers and advisers have planned for their return to power, legal-proofing policies that came unstuck in the courts first time round. So on Saturday night, they apparently used a different course of action and a little-known provision with Title 10 of the US Code on Armed Forces. It allows the deployment of National Guard forces if 'there is a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the government of the United States.' It has not been used since 1965. The stakes this time are high. Mr Trump's opponents have struggled to cope with his 'flood the zone' strategy, unleashing executive orders, presidential proclamations and Truth Social posts at a torrential rate. The result is that Democrats in Congress and on the street have failed to coalesce into a united opposition. That could be changing with raids on factories, food trucks and the parking lots where foreign workers congregate to pick up a day's work on building sites. They offer a focal point in an already febrile debate over immigration, the freedom to protest, and the limits of presidential power. Los Angeles was calm overnight on Saturday, but more protests are expected on Sunday afternoon. Immigration groups in New York also have events lined up on Sunday and Monday. Against that backdrop, Mr Trump and his government of loyalists is gambling that sending in troops will end the trouble before it can spread and prevent months of riots, not create an even bigger conflagration.
Powys County Times
20 minutes ago
- Powys County Times
National Guard face protesters hours after arriving in LA on Trump's orders
Members of the National Guard faced protesters in Los Angeles on Sunday, and tear gas was fired at a growing crowd that gathered outside a federal complex, hours after the troops arrived in the city on President Donald Trump's orders. The confrontation broke out in front of the Metropolitan Detention Centre in central Los Angeles, as a group of demonstrators shouted insults at members of the federal guard lined shoulder to shoulder behind plastic riot shields. There did not appear to be any arrests. About 300 National Guard troops arrived in Los Angeles on Sunday on orders from Mr Trump, in response to clashes in recent days between federal immigration authorities and protesters seeking to block them from carrying out deportations. Members of California's National Guard had mobilised at the federal complex in central Los Angeles that includes the Metropolitan Detention Centre, one of several sites that have seen confrontations involving hundreds of people in last two days. The troops included members of the 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, according to a social media post from the Department of Defence that showed dozens of National Guard members with long guns and an armoured vehicle. Mr Trump has said he is deploying 2,000 California National Guard troops to Los Angeles to quell the protests, which he called 'a form of rebellion'. California — Don't give Donald Trump what he wants. Speak up. Stay peaceful. Stay calm. Do not use violence and respect the law enforcement officers that are trying their best to keep the peace. — Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) June 8, 2025 The deployment was limited to a small area in central Los Angeles. The protests have been relatively small and limited to that area. The rest of the city of four million people is largely unaffected. Their arrival follows clashes near a Home Depot in the heavily Latino city of Paramount, south of Los Angeles. As protesters sought to block Border Patrol vehicles, some hurling rocks and chunks of cement, federal agents unleashed tear gas, flash-bang explosives and pepper balls. Tensions were high after a series of sweeps by immigration authorities the previous day, as the weeklong tally of immigrant arrests in the city climbed past 100. A prominent union leader was arrested while protesting and accused of impeding law enforcement. On Sunday, homeland security secretary Kristi Noem said the National Guard would 'keep peace and allow people to be able to protest but also to keep law and order'. In a signal of the administration's aggressive approach, defence secretary Pete Hegseth also threatened to deploy active-duty marines 'if violence continues' in the region. The move came over the objections of governor Gavin Newsom, marking the first time in decades that a state's national guard was activated without a request from its governor, according to the Brennan Centre for Justice. In a directive on Saturday, Mr Trump invoked a legal provision allowing him to deploy federal service members when there is 'a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States'. Mr Newsom, a Democrat, said Mr Trump's decision to call in the National Guard was 'purposefully inflammatory'. He described Mr Hegseth's threat to deploy marines on American soil as 'deranged behaviour'. In a statement on Sunday, assistant homeland security secretary Tricia McLaughlin accused California's politicians and protesters of 'defending heinous illegal alien criminals at the expense of Americans' safety'. A message to the LA rioters: you will not stop us or slow us down. @ICEgov will continue to enforce the law. And if you lay a hand on a law enforcement officer, you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. — Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) June 7, 2025 'Instead of rioting, they should be thanking Ice (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) officers every single day who wake up and make our communities safer,' Ms McLaughlin added. Vermont senator Bernie Sanders said the order by Mr Trump reflected 'a president moving this country rapidly into authoritarianism' and 'usurping the powers of the United States Congress'. Mr Trump's order came after clashes in Paramount and neighbouring Compton, where a car was set on fire. Protests continued into the evening in Paramount, with several hundred demonstrators gathered near a doughnut shop, and authorities holding up barbed wire to keep the crowd back. Crowds also gathered again outside federal buildings in central Los Angeles, including a detention centre, where police declared an unlawful assembly and began to arrest people.
South Wales Argus
27 minutes ago
- South Wales Argus
National Guard face protesters hours after arriving in LA on Trump's orders
The confrontation broke out in front of the Metropolitan Detention Centre in central Los Angeles, as a group of demonstrators shouted insults at members of the federal guard lined shoulder to shoulder behind plastic riot shields. There did not appear to be any arrests. About 300 National Guard troops arrived in Los Angeles on Sunday on orders from Mr Trump, in response to clashes in recent days between federal immigration authorities and protesters seeking to block them from carrying out deportations. Members of California's National Guard had mobilised at the federal complex in central Los Angeles that includes the Metropolitan Detention Centre, one of several sites that have seen confrontations involving hundreds of people in last two days. The troops included members of the 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, according to a social media post from the Department of Defence that showed dozens of National Guard members with long guns and an armoured vehicle. Mr Trump has said he is deploying 2,000 California National Guard troops to Los Angeles to quell the protests, which he called 'a form of rebellion'. California — Don't give Donald Trump what he wants. Speak up. Stay peaceful. Stay calm. Do not use violence and respect the law enforcement officers that are trying their best to keep the peace. — Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) June 8, 2025 The deployment was limited to a small area in central Los Angeles. The protests have been relatively small and limited to that area. The rest of the city of four million people is largely unaffected. Their arrival follows clashes near a Home Depot in the heavily Latino city of Paramount, south of Los Angeles. As protesters sought to block Border Patrol vehicles, some hurling rocks and chunks of cement, federal agents unleashed tear gas, flash-bang explosives and pepper balls. Tensions were high after a series of sweeps by immigration authorities the previous day, as the weeklong tally of immigrant arrests in the city climbed past 100. A protester throws a rock while surrounded by tear gas from law enforcement during a demonstration in Paramount on Saturday (Eric Thayer/AP) A prominent union leader was arrested while protesting and accused of impeding law enforcement. On Sunday, homeland security secretary Kristi Noem said the National Guard would 'keep peace and allow people to be able to protest but also to keep law and order'. In a signal of the administration's aggressive approach, defence secretary Pete Hegseth also threatened to deploy active-duty marines 'if violence continues' in the region. The move came over the objections of governor Gavin Newsom, marking the first time in decades that a state's national guard was activated without a request from its governor, according to the Brennan Centre for Justice. Police detain a man during a protest in Paramount (Eric Thayer/AP) In a directive on Saturday, Mr Trump invoked a legal provision allowing him to deploy federal service members when there is 'a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States'. Mr Newsom, a Democrat, said Mr Trump's decision to call in the National Guard was 'purposefully inflammatory'. He described Mr Hegseth's threat to deploy marines on American soil as 'deranged behaviour'. In a statement on Sunday, assistant homeland security secretary Tricia McLaughlin accused California's politicians and protesters of 'defending heinous illegal alien criminals at the expense of Americans' safety'. A message to the LA rioters: you will not stop us or slow us down. @ICEgov will continue to enforce the law. And if you lay a hand on a law enforcement officer, you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. — Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) June 7, 2025 'Instead of rioting, they should be thanking Ice (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) officers every single day who wake up and make our communities safer,' Ms McLaughlin added. Vermont senator Bernie Sanders said the order by Mr Trump reflected 'a president moving this country rapidly into authoritarianism' and 'usurping the powers of the United States Congress'. Mr Trump's order came after clashes in Paramount and neighbouring Compton, where a car was set on fire. Protests continued into the evening in Paramount, with several hundred demonstrators gathered near a doughnut shop, and authorities holding up barbed wire to keep the crowd back. Crowds also gathered again outside federal buildings in central Los Angeles, including a detention centre, where police declared an unlawful assembly and began to arrest people.
