Two high administration officers took turns defending Donald Trump’s resolution to simply accept a $400m jet as a “gift” from the Qatari royal household on Sunday.
Steve Witkoff and Scott Bessent appeared for separate interviews on ABC’s This Week and CNN’s State of the Union, the place each supplied related defenses for an trade that even Republican senators and House members have overtly stated carries the optics of bribery.
Witkoff, the Trump White House’s Middle East envoy, spoke to ABC as efforts proceed by the administration to have interaction with Iran within the first direct talks between the US and Iran for the reason that Obama administration. President Trump returned from a visit to the area on Friday after touting a brand new main deal for Boeing in Qatar; he additionally visited the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
His envoy insisted that the reward of a $400m Boeing 747-8 for use as a alternative for Air Force One “just has to be seen” as a growth that may profit America with none downsides.
“It’s a perfectly legal, government to government, Department of Defense, to Department of Defense transaction that happens in the normal course and has been happening in the normal course throughout … our existence,” Witkoff claimed. “They decided to donate something because of all the wonderful things that we’ve done for them in the past.”
“I’m not sure how anyone would see this as the Qataris looking to gain some sort of advantage,” added Witkoff, who beforehand did enterprise with the Qatari authorities’s sovereign wealth fund earlier than becoming a member of the White House.
The Treasury secretary, in the meantime, likened the reward to the French authorities’s donation of the Statue of Liberty to the US.
“The French gave us the Statue of Liberty. The British gave us the Resolute Desk,” Scott Bessent stated on CNN’s State of the Union. “I’m not sure they asked for anything in advance.”
Host Jake Tapper responded by declaring that the statue was not for the non-public use of a president, in contrast to the aircraft, which is ready to be moved to Trump’s presidential library upon his departure from the White House.
“I think this plane would be a gift to the American government,” Bessent stated in response.
The optics of the Qatari authorities’s reward of a palatial improve to the present, getting old Air Force One shouldn’t be misplaced on many, together with within the GOP congressional caucuses. Others have tripped up trying to keep away from answering.
Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican senator, warned on Sunday that the president risked undermining his personal message by accepting the reward.
“I think my fear is that it detracts from a largely successful trip where the president is talking about opening up and doing more trade with the Middle East, which is a good thing, particularly amidst all the protectionism and directing away from trade that we’ve had going on,” Paul stated on ABC.
Mike Pence, Trump’s former working mate, additionally urged the president to rethink throughout a separate interview on NBC’s Meet the Press.
Pro-Trump commentator Ben Shapiro, on his podcast this previous week, informed listeners: “I believe the technical time period is ‘skeezy.’”
On Friday, the president lashed out at a Fox News reporter for asking him in regards to the rising unease over Qatar’s reward.
“I just want to say, it was a radical left story,” Trump informed Fox’s Bret Baier. “I made a good deal.”
“This goes to the United States Air Force for whoever is president, and at some point, it’ll be like Ronald Reagan. It’ll be decommissioned, because they won’t want it,” he added.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-qatar-jet-statue-liberty-b2753458.html