WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has accepted a luxurious Boeing 747 plane from Qatar for President Donald Trump to make use of as Air Force One, the Pentagon stated Wednesday, regardless of ongoing questions concerning the ethics and legality of taking the costly present from a overseas nation.
The Defense Department will “work to ensure proper security measures” on the plane to make it secure to be used by the president, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell stated. He added that the airplane was accepted “in accordance with all federal rules and regulations.”
Trump has defended the present, which got here up throughout his current Middle East journey, as a technique to save tax {dollars}.
“Why should our military, and therefore our taxpayers, be forced to pay hundreds of millions of Dollars when they can get it for FREE,” Trump posted on his social media web site in the course of the journey.
Others, nevertheless, have stated Trump’s acceptance of an plane that has been referred to as a “palace in the sky” is a violation of the Constitution’s prohibition on overseas presents. Democrats have been united in outrage, and even a few of the Republican president’s GOP allies in Congress have expressed issues.
They even have famous the necessity to retrofit the airplane to fulfill safety necessities, which might be expensive and take time.
“Far from saving money, this unconstitutional action will not only cost our nation its dignity, but it will force taxpayers to waste over 1 billion in taxpayer dollars to overhaul this particular aircraft when we currently have not one, but two fully operational and fully capable Air Force One aircraft,” stated Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill.
She stated throughout a listening to Tuesday that it’s a “dangerous course of action” for the U.S. to just accept the plane from the Qatari ruling household.
Air Force Secretary Troy Meink instructed senators that Hegseth has ordered the service to begin planning learn how to replace it to fulfill wanted requirements and acknowledged that the airplane would require “significant” modifications.
The Air Force, in an announcement, stated it’s making ready to award a contract to switch a Boeing 747 plane, however that any particulars are labeled.
Trump was requested concerning the transfer Wednesday whereas he was assembly within the Oval Office with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. “They are giving the United States Air Force a jet,” Trump stated, bristling at being questioned concerning the present by a reporter.
Trump stated it was given “not to me, to the United States Air Force, so they could help us out” and famous that “Boeing’s a little bit late, unfortunately.”
Ramaphosa, who was sitting subsequent to Trump within the Oval Office and has been working to restore his relationship with the president, stated, “I’m sorry I don’t have a plane to give you.”
“If your country was offering the United States Air Force a plane, I would take it,” Trump stated.
Trump has offered no nationwide safety crucial for a swift improve moderately than ready for Boeing to complete new Air Force One jets which have been within the works for years.
He has tried to tamp down a few of the opposition by saying he wouldn’t fly round within the plane when his time period ends. Instead, he stated, the airplane could be donated to a future presidential library, much like how the Boeing 707 utilized by President Ronald Reagan was decommissioned and placed on show as a museum piece.
Associated Press writers Tara Copp and Michelle L. Price contributed to this report.
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