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Time of India
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
As Qatar's $400 million jumbo jet gift for Donald Trump hogs limelight, these unique gifts have been presented to US Presidents in past. Here's the list
US President Donald Trump may accept a $400 million luxury jet from Qatar as a possible Air Force One. While this move has triggered concerns, it is not the first time a US president has received a costly gift from a foreign government. Gifts to US Presidents Gifts from foreign leaders have been part of American presidential history since 1776. Presidents have often received items that reflect diplomacy and goodwill, ranging from cultural artifacts to live animals. In 1862, King Mongkut of Siam offered Abraham Lincoln a herd of elephants. Lincoln declined but kept a sword, elephant tusks, and a royal family photo. In 1880, Queen Victoria sent President Rutherford Hayes a desk made from the HMS Resolute's timbers. That desk has since remained a staple in the Oval Office. GIF89a����!�,D; Continue to video 5 5 Next Stay Playback speed 1x Normal Back 0.25x 0.5x 1x Normal 1.5x 2x 5 5 / Skip Ads by by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Semua yang Perlu Anda Ketahui Tentang Limfoma Limfoma Pelajari Undo In 1943, Winston Churchill gifted President Franklin D. Roosevelt a painting of a mosque. It was later owned by Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, eventually selling for $11.5 million. President Richard Nixon accepted two pandas from China in 1972, which were housed at the National Zoo. In 1997, Azerbaijan's leader gave President Bill Clinton and his wife a handmade rug featuring their portraits. The rug was made in one day by 12 women. President George W. Bush received 300 pounds of lamb from Argentina in 2003 and a puppy from Bulgaria, which was later given to family friends. Live Events Also Read: Controversial Gift One of the earliest and most debated gifts was a diamond-studded snuff box given to Benjamin Franklin in 1785. The gift from King Louis XVI led to concerns about foreign influence. It played a role in the creation of the Emoluments Clause , which bars federal officials from accepting gifts without Congress's consent. Legal Limits on Presidential Gifts Today, US law requires disclosure of foreign gifts worth over $480. Presidents may display such gifts in libraries, but must buy them to keep them personally. Trump has said the Qatari jet would go to his presidential center after his term. Concerns About Qatar's Influence Trump's administration says the jet is a goodwill gesture. However, critics warn it could give Qatar influence. Qatar has increased its presence in Washington in recent years. FAQs Why is Trump's Qatari jet gift controversial? Ethics groups worry the jet could signal undue foreign influence and may violate rules on presidential gifts if not properly disclosed or valued. What is the Emoluments Clause? The Emoluments Clause prevents federal officials from accepting foreign gifts without Congress's approval, aiming to limit foreign influence on government decisions.
New York Post
13-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Post
Unusual gifts received by US presidents include a gold snuff box, giant pandas, elephant tusks and personalized rugs
The White House may be courting controversy with President Trump's plans to accept a luxury jumbo jet from the Qatari government, worth $400 million, as the potential new Air Force One — but his administration wouldn't be the first to welcome lavish gifts from foreign leaders. The practice goes all the way back to the founding of the country in 1776, with US leaders receiving all manner of exotic and expensive gifts from royalty and heads of government around the world. Abraham Lincoln politely declined a gift of a herd of elephants from the King of Siam, modern day Thailand, in 1862. But he kept 'a sword of costly materials and exquisite workmanship,' a photo of the monarch's family and two elephant tusks, according to a letter Lincoln sent to King Mongkut. Advertisement 8 A handmade rug featuring a likeness of Bill and Hillary Clinton was a gift from Azerbaijan's president Heydar Aliyev in 1997. 8 To commemorate Richard Nixon's visit to China, the Chinese government presented the US with giant pandas Ling Ling and Hsing Hsing in 1974. They were donated to Washington's National Zoo where they lived for more than two decades. AP In 1880, Queen Victoria sent an intricately carved, 1,300-pound wooden desk to President Rutherford Hayes that was constructed from the oak timbers of the HMS Resolute, an Arctic exploration vessel. The desk was still in use in the Oval Office under the Biden administration but was temporarily removed in February for refinishing, according to reports. Advertisement British Prime Minister Winston Churchill presented Franklin D. Roosevelt with a painting he did of Marrakech's Koutoubia Mosque in 1943. Hollywood actor Brad Pitt bought the work in New Orleans for $2.95 million as a gift for his then-wife Angelina Jolie, who sold it a decade later for $11.5 million. 8 In 1880, Queen Victoria presented US President Rutherford Hayes with a 1,300 pound desk that is still used in the Oval Office. Getty Images Richard Nixon accepted a gift of two giant pandas from China in 1972 following the US president's visit to the Communist country. Female panda Ling-Ling and her male mate Hsing-Hsing were given to the National Zoo in Washington DC. In 1997, President Clinton and wife Hillary received the gift of a handmade rug with their pictures woven into the tapestry as a gift from Azerbaijan's leader Heydar Aliyev. The six-by-five-foot rug was completed in a single day by a team of 12 women, according to reports. Advertisement President George W. Bush received 300 pounds of raw lamb in 2003 as a goodwill gesture from Argentina's then president Nestor Kirchner. Bush also received a puppy from Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov. At the end of his presidency Bush and his wife Laura then bought the two-month old Bulgarian Goran shepherd, named Balkan of Gorannadraganov, from the government and gave it to friends in Maryland. His father, George H.W. Bush was gifted a Komodo dragon by the President of Indonesia in 1990. 8 Britain's wartime leader Winston Churchill presented his US counterpart Franklin Delano Roosevelt with a painting of a Marrakech mosque in 1943. The painting was sold at auction in 2021 by Hollywood actor Angelina Jolie for $11.5 million. 8 In 1862, Abraham Lincoln politely declined a gift of a herd of elephants from the King of Siam. Getty Images Advertisement One of the most lavish and controversial gifts was a gold and diamond snuff box given to Benjamin Franklin after his nine-year diplomatic tour of duty in France. In 1785, King Louis XVI gave the Founding Father the elaborate parting gift which featured a miniature image of the monarch encrusted with 408 diamonds 'of a beautiful water.' It raised questions about corruption and foreign influence on officials in the newly formed American government, wrote Fordham Law professor Zephyr Teachout in her 2014 book, 'Corruption in America: From Benjamin Franklin's Snuff Box to Citizens United.' 8 Founding Father and diplomat Benjamin Franklin came under fire for accepting a lavish snuff box as a parting gift from Louis XVI when he returned to the US after serving nine years in Paris. Getty Images Despite the hand-wringing over whether the gift entailed undue foreign influence, Franklin insisted upon keeping the box. The incident later contributed to the passage of the Emoluments Clause in the US Constitution, which prohibits federal government officials from accepting any gift from the representative of a foreign state without the consent of Congress. Franklin's daughter Sarah, who inherited the snuff box, gradually removed the diamonds to sell or give to family members. Hundreds of years later, only one diamond box is now at the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia. 8 Robes lined with cheetah fur given to Donald Trump from Saudi Arabia during his first trip abroad as president in 2021 turned out to be fake. General Services Administration 8 President Trump said he is in the process of negotiating with Qatar for a new jumbo jet that would double as AirForce One while he is in the White House. Later, the plane would be donated to a Trump presidential center. AP Advertisement Federal law requires executive branch officials to disclose any gift from a foreign government valued at $480 or more. Presidents are allowed to keep gifts to display at a presidential library, but cannot keep them for personal use unless they pay the fair market price. Trump has said that the $400 million new Air Force One plane would be donated to his presidential center or library after his term. Despite his administration's insistence that the jet is a gesture of goodwill to the US government, ethics watchdogs have raised concerns about transparency and foreign influence, particularly given Qatar's efforts to bolster its profile in Washington over the past decade. Advertisement More recently, Trump received a sword, dagger and three robes lined with white tiger and cheetah fur from Saudi Arabia's royal family on his first trip abroad as president in 2017. The president held onto the items until he left office and did not disclose them as gifts but gave them to the General Services Administration. The pieces were later seized by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, which found that the fur was fake, according to reports.
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
A bicycle, pencil sharpener, 300lb of raw meat: US presidential gifts and the rules governing them
Reports that Donald Trump's administration is preparing to accept a luxury plane from the Qatari royal family have set off a storm of criticism, as ethics experts say such a gift would violate rules within the constitution that seek to guard against bribery and corruption. There is a long history of US presidents accepting gifts from foreign powers. The very desk from which Trump has signed a record number of executive order was given to the US by Queen Victoria in 1880. The 'Resolute Desk' was given to President Rutherford B Hayes and is made from the oak timbers of the British ship HMS Resolute. Related: Trump says planned gift of luxury plane from Qatar is a very 'transparent' deal Clothes, antiques – and even animals – have all in the past been presented to US presidents. Most often these gifts are then disposed of through a complicated bureaucratic process enshrined in the constitution. During George W Bush's administration, a puppy given to the president by the leader of Bulgaria was sent directly to the National Archives which preserves government and historical records. The puppy was then placed with a family. Bush was unable to keep the dog because under the constitution's emoluments clause, government office holders are banned from accepting gifts from any 'king, prince, or foreign state', without the approval of Congress. Trump officials reportedly believe the president might be able to keep the luxury plane because it will be transferred to his presidential library at the end of his term. Sources say they arrived at that conclusion after determining that the gift was not conditioned on any official act and therefore was not bribery. Under US law, foreign gifts valued at less than $480 can be retained by federal employees. Anything over that amount is considered a gift to the 'people of the United States' and must be logged and then disposed of by the White House Gift Unit. Most gifts are transferred to the national archives or the presidents future presidential library which acts as an archive of the leader's administration. Like other presidents, Barack Obama's presidential library contains thousands of gifts, given to the former presidents, including silver cufflinks, Christmas ornaments and a double decker bus pencil sharpener. If a gift does take the president's particular fancy, they can retain it, as long as they pay a fair market value for it. In 2023, the US House oversight committee reported 100 items given to Trump from foreign nations in his first term were missing, after the White House failed to log them. They included a lifesize painting of the president given by the president of El Salvador and golf clubs from the prime minister of Japan that were valued at more than $250,000 in total. A spokesperson for Trump said many of the items 'were received either before or after the administration'. The New York Times has reported that at an estimated value of $400m, the Boeing jet offer currently making headlines would probably be the most expensive gift from a foreign government in US history. It has been reported that the president would use the plane as the new Air Force One until shortly before the conclusion of his second Oval Office stint, at which point it could be transferred to his presidential library foundation, raising the prospect that Trump would have use of the plane even after his presidency ends. In a statement, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said: 'Any gift given by a foreign government is always accepted in full compliance with all applicable laws. President Trump's administration is committed to full transparency. Despite the ethical concerns, foreign leaders use gifts as an important tool to strengthen relationships and break the diplomatic ice. In 1997, President Heydar Aliyev of Azerbaijan gave Bill Clinton and first lady Hillary Clinton a 6ft by 5ft rug with their faces on it, which was woven in just weeks, after the president accepted an invitation to the White House. Twelve women worked around the clock in eight-hours shifts to produce the carpet, a process that normally takes months. In 2008, Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert gave Bush a bicycle after it was reported that the then president was unable to jog because of an injury to his knee. Other members of the administration are governed by the same rules of gift giving and receiving. In 2005, vice-president Dick Cheney's log of gifts was double that of president George W Bush's. That year Cheney, an avid hunter, received four guns including one worth more than $6,000. For his part, Bush's most eye-opening gift in 2005 might have been 300 pounds (136kg) of raw lamb from Argentina – a gift that was likely destroyed by the secret service due to official White House rules on food and drink gifts.
The Guardian
12-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
A bicycle, pencil sharpener, 300lb of raw meat: US presidential gifts and the rules governing them
Reports that Donald Trump's administration is preparing to accept a luxury plane from the Qatari royal family have set off a storm of criticism, as ethics experts say such a gift would violate rules within the constitution that seek to guard against bribery and corruption. There is a long history of US presidents accepting gifts from foreign powers. The very desk from which Trump has signed a record number of executive order was given to the US by Queen Victoria in 1880. The 'Resolute Desk' was given to President Rutherford B Hayes and is made from the oak timbers of the British ship HMS Resolute. Clothes, antiques – and even animals – have all in the past been presented to US presidents. Most often these gifts are then disposed of through a complicated bureaucratic process enshrined in the constitution. During George W Bush's administration, a puppy given to the president by the leader of Bulgaria was sent directly to the National Archives which preserves government and historical records. The puppy was then placed with a family. Bush was unable to keep the dog because under the constitution's emoluments clause, government office holders are banned from accepting gifts from any 'king, prince, or foreign state', without the approval of Congress. Trump officials reportedly believe the president might be able to keep the luxury plane because it will be transferred to his presidential library at the end of his term. Sources say they arrived at that conclusion after determining that the gift was not conditioned on any official act and therefore was not bribery. Under US law, foreign gifts valued at less than $480 can be retained by federal employees. Anything over that amount is considered a gift to the 'people of the United States' and must be logged and then disposed of by the White House Gift Unit. Most gifts are transferred to the national archives or the presidents future presidential library which acts as an archive of the leader's administration. Like other presidents, Barack Obama's presidential library contains thousands of gifts, given to the former presidents, including silver cufflinks, Christmas ornaments and a double decker bus pencil sharpener. If a gift does take the president's particular fancy, they can retain it, as long as they pay a fair market value for it. In 2023, the US House oversight committee reported 100 items given to Trump from foreign nations in his first term were missing, after the White House failed to log them. They included a lifesize painting of the president given by the president of El Salvador and golf clubs from the prime minister of Japan that were valued at more than $250,000 in total. A spokesperson for Trump said many of the items 'were received either before or after the administration'. The New York Times has reported that at an estimated value of $400m, the Boeing jet offer currently making headlines would probably be the most expensive gift from a foreign government in US history. It has been reported that the president would use the plane as the new Air Force One until shortly before the conclusion of his second Oval Office stint, at which point it could be transferred to his presidential library foundation, raising the prospect that Trump would have use of the plane even after his presidency ends. In a statement, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said: 'Any gift given by a foreign government is always accepted in full compliance with all applicable laws. President Trump's administration is committed to full transparency. Despite the ethical concerns, foreign leaders use gifts as an important tool to strengthen relationships and break the diplomatic ice. In 1997, President Heydar Aliyev of Azerbaijan gave Bill Clinton and first lady Hillary Clinton a 6ft by 5ft rug with their faces on it, which was woven in just weeks, after the president accepted an invitation to the White House. Twelve women worked around the clock in eight-hours shifts to produce the carpet, a process that normally takes months. In 2008, Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert gave Bush a bicycle after it was reported that the then president was unable to jog because of an injury to his knee. Other members of the administration are governed by the same rules of gift giving and receiving. In 2005, vice-president Dick Cheney's log of gifts was double that of president George W Bush's. That year Cheney, an avid hunter, received four guns including one worth more than $6,000. For his part, Bush's most eye-opening gift in 2005 might have been 300 pounds (136kg) of raw lamb from Argentina – a gift that was likely destroyed by the secret service due to official White House rules on food and drink gifts.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Biden Derangement Syndrome? How Trump can't stop blaming everything under the sun on his predecessor
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Generate Key Takeaways When Harry Truman served as president starting nearly 80 years ago, he famously had a sign on his desk which read: 'The Buck Stops Here.' But if Donald Trump were to commission a similar ornament for the iconic desk hewed from timbers salvaged from HMS Resolute, it would probably say something like: 'That was Biden's fault.' Since taking office in January, Trump has made a constant habit of invoking his predecessor's name at almost every public appearance he makes, either to blame the 46th president for whatever ills he is purporting to address with his latest executive actions, or to deflect from bad news while absorbing all the credit for anything positive that has happened recently. He laid this out in bare terms on Friday when he sat for an interview with NBC News anchor Kristen Welker on Meet the Press. Pressed on his habit of bashing Biden for economic problems even though he routinely claims credit for a 'Trump effect' on the economy, Trump said he would only associate himself with 'certain aspects' of it. 'I think the good parts are the Trump economy and the bad parts are the Biden economy because he's done a terrible job,' he said. Days later, he turned a question on whether his sit-down with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney could be made more difficult by the prime minister's declaration that his country was 'not for sale' into another opportunity to bash Biden. Nearly half of Americans blame President Donald Trump for the current state of the U.S. economy, according to a new Gallup poll. The president has consistently blamed his predecessor, Joe Biden (REUTERS) Trump began to answer in the negative and talk about how much the United States and Canada 'love each other.' But it wasn't long until a tangent about China's trade surplus with the U.S. turned into a rant about his predecessor. 'When I started, I say we were losing billions of dollars a day on trade that's rapidly turning around. We looked at numbers this morning. So we were losing the United States, during Biden, was losing more than – I won't even give you numbers because they're so embarrassing, but billions of dollars a day on trade,' he said. Trump then claimed the massive import taxes he was imposing on American importers are 'rapidly' turning around America's trade deficits. But he couldn't help but bring up his predecessor's name. Again. 'The biggest investment ever made in the United States is being made right now, trillions of dollars. I would say we could be at nine. $9 trillion you could go back to other presidents. They haven't had $1 trillion for their entire term. Look at Biden. He had bad numbers. People leaving. They weren't coming in. They were leaving with Biden, and he didn't know the difference. The only thing he knew is people coming in,,' he said. 'You know who they were, illegal immigrants, okay, from prisons, from mental institutions, from all sorts of places that weren't good, from gangs from Venezuela. They were coming in, and they were criminals and murderers. 11,888 people that murdered, and at least half of them murdered more than one person. This is what Biden let into our country.' Trump's riffing about Biden during the Tuesday bilateral wasn't the first time he'd invoked the man who defeated him in the 2020 election this week. He'd mentioned him twice during an Oval Office media availability to announce that Washington, D.C. would host the NFL draft in two years. And the day before, when Trump was taking questions from a group of reporters aboard Air Force One while returning to Washington from his Palm Beach, Florida home, he'd couldn't help but do it again. As he entered the cramped press cabin aboard the converted Boeing 757 he'd used for the past weekend's travel, he launched into a soliloquy about how there was 'a lot of good news' coming this week. Specifically, he said there would be 'good things coming out of the many war zones that were created by Biden and a group of incompetent people.' But not wanting to elaborate further after insulting his predecessor once more, he added: 'We'll talk about that later or tomorrow.' Since taking office for a second non-consecutive term that has no precedent in modern history, President Donald Trump has often remarked that no other presidents have done what he has done. In one specific area — his near-obsessive invocation of his predecessor's name — he is absolutely, objectively correct. Trump is an outlier among modern American chief executives in that he has steadfastly refused to let go of his predecessors as targets for political attacks or scapegoats for anything that goes wrong on his watch. That's because the American political tradition, for better or worse, has always been to move forward and not obsess over blame for whatever came in the past. When a president is inaugurated after knocking off an incumbent administration or after flipping control of the White House from the opposing political party, it's often because voters were dissatisfied with his predecessor in some major way. In 1981, Ronald Reagan came into office with a mandate based on voters' rejection of the Carter administration's handling of inflation and high-profile foreign policy blunders. He did not spend his historic first 100 days carping about how bad his predecessor had been. When Bill Clinton defeated George HW Bush in the 1992 presidential election, it was on the strength of Clinton's ability to convince voters that he understood the economic pain they were feeling as the country went through a recession that took the wind out of Bush's political sails in the wake of the first Gulf War. But Clinton hardly mentioned Bush during his first months in office. Bush's father, George W. Bush, entered office with a mandate to restore trust in the presidency after Bill Clinton's marital infidelity — and his related perjury in the face of a special prosecutor's investigation — led to him being the first American president to face impeachment in more than a century. But Clinton wasn't much of a foil for Bush, who got to work on a host of conservative priorities until the September 11, 2001 terror attacks upended his presidency. And the younger Bush's successor, Barack Obama, was swept into the presidency on the heels of a generational financial crisis and widespread discontent over the way Bush had prosecuted two wars, including the invasion of Iraq on false pretenses. Harry S. Truman – the buck stopped with him (AFP via Getty Images) Each of those presidents earned their place in the White House on the backs of failures by their predecessors, yet to a man they chose to move forward and push their own agenda based on their own electoral mandates, rather than prosecute claims against those who'd come before. Not so with Trump. Over his first 100 days, NBC News reported that he invoked Biden's name an average of more than six times a day, every day since January 20, the day he was sworn in. Trump brought up Biden 12 times on the day he took office — a marked contrast to the man he'd replaced, who during his first few years in office scarcely uttered Trump's name — plus 16 times during his record-length address to a joint session of Congress in March. During his most recent cabinet meeting on Thursday, he and his top aides invoked the Democrat's name nearly 50 times over the course of two hours, including a question and answer session with reporters. It was just hours after the Bureau of Economic Analysis published statistics showing that the first quarter of year — mostly during Trump's presidency — had resulted in the economy contracting for the first time in years. Though he routinely took credit for economic highs during the latter years of the Biden presidency when he was running against him, Trump blamed Biden for his own bad numbers. When The Independent pressed him on why, he went so far as to suggest he'd blame Biden if the next three months were equally bad. Biden attended Trump's inauguration in January. Trump had refused to do the same for his rival four years earlier (REUTERS) He replied that he was 'not taking credit or discredit for the stock market.' 'I'm just saying that we inherited a mess,' he said. 'You could look at every single one of the people here and no matter who it is, they're doing better and they are far superior to what took place for four years before.' Trump continued riffing on that theme during a pair of incongruous appearances on Thursday — a National Day of Prayer event in the Rose Garden and a commencement address at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He mentioned Biden during both, using his name at times like an epithet and blaming him for the poor state of things. Andrew Bates, a former principal deputy press secretary in the Biden White House, told The Independent via text message that Trump's inability to keep the former president's name out of his mouth was a telling sign of insecurity about how he has handled the economy Biden left him. 'Joe Biden handed Donald Trump an economy that was out-matching all our rivals; experts called it 'the envy of the world.' In 100 days, Trump sent that economy into an unprecedented tailspin with tariffs that are the biggest middle class tax increase in modern history — tariffs Joe Biden publicly warned against. Trump's about to worsen that self-inflicted damage with inflationary tax giveaways for the rich. Meanwhile, he's exploiting his private clubs to profit off the presidency,' he said. 'It makes sense that the name of a President with a better economic record is on Trump's mind, but I'm surprised he wants Americans thinking about how much better off they were before the Trump Crime Family was in charge." Trump may want Americans to blame Biden for any negative results from his own policies, but it doesn't look like voters are interested for the most part. Nearly half of voters surveyed in April by Gallup in a recent poll believe that Trump is more responsible for the unstable economy than Biden, up three percent from the previous month. Larry Sabato, the director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, told The Independent that Trump's deflections are only working on those who are going to believe him no matter what because his MAGA base won't ever tire of blaming Biden. 'Cult members always listen approvingly to the cult leader. As for everyone else, the Biden blame game is already stale. Yes, Biden is as unpopular as ever, but every person knows from their own experience that you have to accept some responsibility for what happens on your watch,' he said. Sabato added that Trump has 'overdone' the Biden attacks, leading Americans to tune them out. 'If there's a recession, Katie bar the door. It will be the Trump Recession, and there's no escaping his personal responsibility,' he said.
