Trump Says Only a ‘Stupid Person' Wouldn't Take a Free Plane From Qatar

Gizmodo

12-05-2025

President Donald Trump defended his plan to accept a $400 million plane from Qatar to use as Air Force One during a press conference at the White House Monday morning. The 'great gesture,' as Trump called it, would be one of the most galling acts of corruption in modern history, all in plain sight. But Trump seems to think that it's not actually corrupt as long as public officials don't hide it behind closed doors.
News about the plane first broke when ABC News reported Sunday that Trump was in discussions to accept a super luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet from the royal family of Qatar. The report said Trump's presidential library foundation would take control of the plane after his presidency, an idea clearly inspired by the fact that a plane which had served as Air Force One during the late 20th century was placed at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum after it was decommissioned in the 2000s.
Trump defended the news on Truth Social in a bizarre screed Sunday night, insisting that it would be great to get a 'gift' from Qatar like this.
'So the fact that the Defense Department is getting a GIFT, FREE OF CHARGE, of a 747 aircraft to replace the 40 year old Air Force One, temporarily, in a very public and transparent transaction, so bothers the Crooked Democrats that they insist we pay, TOP DOLLAR, for the plane. Anybody can do that! The Dems are World Class Losers!!! MAGA,' Trump wrote.
The Trump Organization struck a deal in April to build a luxury golf resort in Qatar, according to the Associated Press, believed to be the first publicly disclosed overseas deal from his company since President Trump was inaugurated in January. Trump's business is also reportedly negotiating deals in other countries like Vietnam, a country that's also important for trade discussions with the U.S. government.
Trump was asked by a reporter at the White House on Monday if Qatar had asked for anything in exchange for the $400 million plane. But the president insisted the country just wanted to give him a plane for free and didn't want anything in return. Boeing is currently working on delivering a new Air Force One but is behind schedule, something that clearly frustrates Trump, who called it 'a mess I inherited from Biden.'
'I think Qatar, who has… really we've helped them a lot over the years in terms of security and safety, I felt that… I think that… and very, very nicely,' Trump rambled. 'I have a lot of respect for the leadership and for the leader, Qatar. And I think they very… they knew about it because they buy Boeings.'
Trump went on to claim the donation of the plane would be to the Defense Department, which somehow didn't make it corrupt.
'If we can get a 747 as a contribution to our Defense Department to use during a couple of years while they're building the other ones, I think that was a very nice gesture,' Trump said. 'Now I could be a stupid person to 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 because, again, we're talking about… we have 40-year-old aircraft.'
Trump went on to claim it was a 'gesture of good faith' because the U.S. protects countries like the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar militarily. Trump said those countries 'wouldn't exist' if it weren't for American protection. He went on to bring up the plane at President Reagan's presidential library, appearing to confirm suspicions that his administration got the idea for using his own library as an excuse from that institution.
It's unclear how on Earth the U.S. government would be able to secure a plane gifted from a foreign government, given the likelihood that it poses an enormous security risk. But security hasn't really been top of mind for the Trump regime.
Needless to say, even if Trump doesn't use the plane in a personal capacity after he leaves office, the transaction is still illegal under the Emoluments Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Applying the most rudimentary logic, nobody gets a $400 million plane for nothing.
The press conference on Monday was ostensibly about lowering drug prices, but several other topics came up. And journalists in the room were very interested in the story of the jet from Qatar. Trump was asked by an ABC News reporter what he'd say to people who view the Qatari jet as a 'personal gift to you.' That touched a nerve as Trump said, 'You should be embarrassed asking that question,' referring to the reporter as fake news. The president then went on to tell the story of a golfer named Sam Snead, who died in 2002.
'You know, there was an old golfer named Sam Snead. Did you ever hear of him? He won 82 tournaments,' Trump said. 'He was a great golfer. And he had a motto, 'When they give you a putt, you say, thank you very much.' You pick up your ball and you walk to the next hole.'
Trump was referring to the common courtesy that sometimes happens between people who are playing golf together. Someone will just allow someone to pick up their ball when it's close to the hole, assuming they would have made it because it was so easy. He went on to explain that anyone who didn't take something for 'free,' like a gimme putt on the golf course, was essentially a chump.
'A lot of people are stupid,' said Trump. 'They say, 'No, no, I insist on putting it.' Then they putt it and they miss it. And their partner gets angry at them. You know what? Remember that. Sam Snead. When they give you a putt, you pick it up and you walk to the next hole and you say, 'Thank you very much.''
Trump appears to believe a gimme putt and a $400 million jet are the same thing.
It's all so shockingly corrupt at every level, but don't expect America's traditional news outlets to call it that. Eric Lipton, a writer for the New York Times, argued Monday on Bluesky that Trump accepting the plane wouldn't technically be corruption because there's no 'explict [sic] quid pro quo.'
'Corruption requires explict quid pro quo. It is not corrupt to take an action that aligns with the interest of a person who gives you a gift, unless the official action was in direct response to that gift—a bribe. Terms matter. Accuracy and fairness matters. Regardless of what social media wants,' Lipton wrote.
Corruption requires explict quid pro quo. It is not corrupt to take an action that aligns with the interest of a person who gives you a gift, unless the official action was in direct response to that gift–a bribe. Terms matter. Accuracy and fairness matters. Regardless of what social media wants.
— Eric Lipton NYT (@ericlipton.nytimes.com) May 12, 2025 at 6:02 AM
For a person trying to be pedantic, this is laughably untrue. The most straightforward dictionary definitions of corruption do not require a quid pro quo. Rick Hasen, a professor at the UCLA School of Law, wrote in response to Lipton's post, 'Please do not confuse the legal requirements for the crime of bribery with the concept of corruption.'
Trump's fascist government has absolutely steamrolled American society with blatantly corrupt schemes, including the president's so-called memecoin cryptocurrency, which has reportedly contributed billions to Trump's net worth. The president plans to have dinner with the top buyers of $TRUMP on May 22, one of countless ways Trump is engaging in shady dealings out in public. Again, it seems like Trump doesn't believe he'll actually pay any consequence if he does it out in the open, and so far, he's been right.
The biggest scandal of Trump's second term, as far as media coverage is concerned, is probably Signalgate, when Mike Waltz and Pete Hegseth shared military plans on a commercially available messaging app that included the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine, Jeffrey Goldberg. The scandal, it seems, was that the impropriety happened in a way that wasn't supposed to be known publicly. If Hegseth and Waltz had just announced ahead of time that they were using Signal to discuss highly sensitive classified information, it almost certainly would not have been a huge story.
President Trump will continue to act like there are no guardrails to his administration because it's clear the U.S. is in a constitutional crisis. And America's 'opposition party,' the Democrats, refuse to recognize the emergency we're in. Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar appeared on Meet the Press on Sunday and was asked whether the country was in a constitutional crisis. Klobuchar said we weren't because courts have frequently been ruling against Trump. The problem with that argument? Trump has often ignored the courts. In fact, the Supreme Court ordered Trump to bring back Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was wrongly deported to a prison in El Salvador. Trump has plainly said he'll make no effort to bring the man back.
We're in a constitutional crisis, and Trump is corrupt as hell, selling crypto and trying to take a gift worth $400 million from a foreign government. The question is what anyone can do about any of it.