So here we have French President Emmanuel Macron while asking for sacrifices from the French people, when he suddenly realizes he is wearing a very expensive watch.
— Richard (@ricwe123) May 11, 2025
And voila, just like a magician it disappears under the table......
😂😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/lCfqkYRJCw
The gift had been expected to be announced next week, when Trump visits Qatar on the first foreign trip of his second term, according to sources familiar with the plans. But a senior White House official said the gift will not be presented or gifted while the president is in Qatar this week.
In a social media post Sunday night, Trump confirmed his administration was preparing to accept the aircraft, calling it a "very public and transparent transaction" with the Defense Department.
Trump had previously toured the plane, which is so opulently configured it is known as "a flying palace," while it was parked at the West Palm Beach International Airport in February.
ABC News adds
The highly unusual -- unprecedented -- arrangement is sure
to raise questions about whether it is legal for the Trump administration, and
ultimately, the Trump presidential library foundation, to accept such a
valuable gift from a foreign power.
That's a major question- but it must not be the only question. For a President who stole classified, even top-secret, documents from the federal government, a gift from Qatar comes with troubling possibilities.
The relationship between the USA and Qatar, as described here by the Trump-friendly New York Post, is, for better or worse (both, mostly the latter) complex and complicated. On May 7, Amine Ayoub, a foreign policy analyst based in Morocco for the hawkish, pro-Israel Middle East Forum, wrote in response to President Trump's three-day visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE, beginning on May 12.
Ayoub argued that Trump "understands the cost of being used by regimes that speak the language of partnership while pursuing their own agendas behind closed doors. The President's base expects candor, not ceremony." (O.K., political psychology is not his forte.) He added, while unaware that "disruptive clarity" should be replaced by "chaotic opacity"
This moment gives Trump a choice: lend his brand to a carefully choreographed narrative, or reaffirm the disruptive clarity that has defined his foreign policy. Qatar needs Trump more than Trump needs Qatar. That leverage should be used not to flatter, but to demand more- more transparency, more accountability, and more alignment with the values that the US claims to defend.
Fat chance of that happening now, as in "slim chance." There are roughly 400 million reasons that leverage won't be used, with the jet valued at a little under a half billion dollars, according to "aviation industry experts."
Not only has Trump been bribed- not exactly the first or second or even third time in recent history- but with potentially catastrophic consequences. Not only will he be tempted to deliver intelligence information, but there is a serious possibility that the aircraft will be efficiently outfitted with spyware by Doha.
That won't necessarily occur and the Qataris, sensitive to public relations, may even reconsider their "gift" to a guy who can never surround himself with enough gold nor accumulate enough wealth. However, this matter stands as another example of the adage that there is "no such thing as a free lunch.
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