Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) on Tuesday grounded Donald Trump’s plans for the luxury jet that was gifted by Qatar and is now in use as Air Force One.
Trump unveiled the new presidential aircraft last week, a plane gifted by the Qatari government that has since undergone modifications. Trump has said he will not use the aircraft after leaving office and that it will eventually be donated to his future presidential library.
Raskin's Blunt Response
The MeidasTouch Network asked Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, if Trump gets to keep the jet after his presidency ends. “No, he does not,” Raskin bluntly replied.
Raskin then explained: “You know why? Because the Constitution says he can’t do it. Because the Constitution says that the president may not receive a present, an emolument, which means a payment, an office or title of any kind, whatever, from a king, a prince, or a foreign state without the consent of Congress. And Congress has not consented to him keeping a $400 million jet. So it’s got to be turned over immediately to Congress for our disposition. And we can either send it back to the people in Qatar, or we can keep it and do something different with it. But it doesn’t belong to the president.”
Constitutional Grounds
The Constitution’s foreign emoluments 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.”
Raskin pointed to President Abraham Lincoln’s decision to turn over “some elephant tusks he’d gotten from the King of Siam” to the State Department as a perfect example of how foreign gifts should be handled. “Like, that’s the right way to do it,” he said. “Every other president has come to Congress to ask whether they can keep one of these foreign gifts from a government or a king or a prince. President Trump should be no different. He’s got to come to us too. And if not, we’ll just have to requisition it and confiscate it.”
Ethics Concerns
Ethics concerns were raised when the gift — which Trump has argued is being given to the Department of Defense, not to him personally — was first reported last year. At the time, Columbia Law School professor Richard Briffault told NPR that if the aircraft ultimately ends up in Trump’s presidential library, “then it’s not really a gift to the United States at all” and that accepting the plane would be a “pretty textbook case of a violation of the Emoluments Clause.”
