Remember: however much you hate the mainstream media, it’s not enough. Apparently having learned nothing from their unhinged Trump Derangement Syndrome for the past eight years, they’re at it again. Whether it’s lying about an El Salvadoran national MS-13 gang member being a ‘Maryland dad’, or lying that Trump ‘disrespected’ the late pope at his funeral, the media clearly just cannot help themselves.
Their latest outburst of Orange Man Bad mendacity concerns the potential gift of a luxury jumbo jet from the Qatari government.
While there are legitimate security concerns about the jet being used for US government business, anyone who thinks Washington’s spooks won’t go over the jet with a fine-tooth comb is even more deluded than the mainstream media. There’s also the question of accepting a gift from an authoritarian Islamic regime: yet the mainstream media had no such qualms about Qatar being chosen to host the recent soccer World Cup.
Instead the media are fixating on another of their Big Lies: that Trump is personally receiving the gift, thus supposedly violating the Constitution’s ‘emoluments clause’. The clause states: No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.
The caveat about ‘the Consent of the Congress’ arose from Benjamin Franklin’s acceptance of a jewelled snuff box from the king of France. Not wishing to offend the king, Franklin accepted, but later asked Congress for permission to keep it (permission was granted).
Franklin was never president of course, though he was a US government minister. But from the founding of the United States in 1776, US presidents have accepted many, many, exotic and often expensive gifts from foreign leaders.
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.
The very desk US presidents have used since the late 19th century was a gift from a foreign monarch.
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.
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.
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.
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 HW Bush was gifted a Komodo dragon by the President of Indonesia in 1990.
In the case of Franklin’s gold, 408 diamond-encrusted snuff box, the former diplomat personally kept it, and passed it on to his daughter, Sarah. In her turn, she progressively removed the diamonds to sell or give to family members. Eventually just one diamond remained, before the box was donated to the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia.
Providing Trump dots the Is and crosses the Ts, there’s nothing legally wrong with accepting the gift.
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.
Then there’s the rest the media aren’t telling: the current Air Force One plane is a relic, built nearly half a century ago. Plans to replace it have been on the table for years, but official contractor Boeing is, yet again, years behind schedule.
But… but… Orange Man Bad!
