See more here.
ADDENDUM: commenter Paul will be ecstatic to know that some MAGA Republicans are against the Qatari gift as well. Trump hasn't accepted the gift yet, so there's still a chance he might reject it. He could be doing his usual A/B testing, finding out what his allies and the public think about this gift.
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The potential scandal is that the plane is not being purchased for fair market price, but is being gifted for free and thus there is always going to be the potential that there is (at least the appearance) of a quid pro quo. We don't have sayings like 'there's no such thing as a free lunch' for nothing. We don't have tropes in movies and dramas about 'calling in a favour' for nothing... It may all be above board, but it sure doesn't look like it. Do you truly believe there will never come a time when the Emir of Qatar rings someone up in the States and says, 'Remember that time I gave you a plane? It's time to pay the piper. I need...'?
ReplyDeleteI'd be curious to see how that might work, especially with the plane (1) not being gifted to Trump himself and (2) being only a temporary solution until Boeing gets off its ass and finishes the Air Force One it had promised years ago. With a 2029-2030 delivery, this won't even be Trump's problem: it'll likely be JD Vance's or whoever the next Democrat might be.
DeleteIf you read the above tweet (did you?), you'll see that this sort of transaction is not new, either. So why no criticism before now? It's just something for the American left to jump on and hyperventilate about because they think it'll make Trump somehow look bad. This isn't some "castle in the sky" that's expressly for Trump's use. Trump won't even be able to board the plane during his term. (If he somehow did, I wouldn't want him redecorating the interior with his tacky gold filigree.) Why would he feel obliged to do anyone a favor? The obliged party is the US military. This is the whole point of the tweet's second paragraph.
I should clarify that Trump won't ever board the new Boeing as president, but he probably won't board the Qatari gift, either, given its potential to be a safety and security nightmare.
DeleteI did read the tweet and I don't have a problem with its contents. However, the tweeter skips over the fact of the plane being gifted rather than purchased, and even though it's not being gifted to Trump directly, it's still happening on his watch, and both sides must be aware of how it looks. Would you be as sanguine if this had happened 4 years ago shortly after Biden became President?
DeleteI see that Qatar has done this a number of times before, and although the country is oil-rich, I can't help but feel that it is not rich enough nor altruistic enough to do this out of the goodness of its heart.
As I said, it may be a completely innocent thing, but as a former auditor and civil servant, it doesn't pass the sniff test, no matter which party's watch it would happen under.
Fair enough. See my addendum.
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