President Trump should not take the $400 million Boeing 747 as a gift from Qatar to replace Air Force One. The primary reason has to with the character and values that a U.S. President should always exhibit. America is the greatest country on earth it has been abundantly blessed by God in a league unto itself. The President of the United States is the leader of this awesome country his actions as President should rise to the level of the stature of the country and not only be guided by principle but always give the impression that they are. Accepting a gift of this size tarnishes the integrity of President Trump it can raises the issue in reasonable people's minds that he is possibly inclined to favor the country of Qatar in Presidential decisions contrary to what principles call for. The wrongdoing here is in perception and such a perception is relevant because issues lie with Qatar where a bias could make a difference; one being the U.S. has a major air base in Qatar if a peace deal is reached in the Ukrainian War and a European Union peace keeping force is established on the armistice line and the U.S. is drafted to protect this peace keeping force sensible judgment could call for a downgrade on the resourcing of this Qatar base and an upgrade of resourcing U.S. bases closer to Ukraine, a Qatar biased President might not follow common wisdom here based on that bias! Also, a President should protect the Office of the Presidency, he or she should not establish precedents that weaken the office; accepting gifts of humongous monetary value would then justify future Presidents doing the same a President sanctioning such behavior weakens the Office of the Presidency it subjects it to be unduly influenced by such gifts. Further, good leaders try to follow the same rules that rank and file in their organization have to follow; rank and file members of the U.S. government have to follow ethics rules where there is a prohibition against receiving gifts. President Trump contrary to the spin is in reality violating this ethical rule which is not displaying the quality of leadership the American people would hope their President would display!
One thing that really doesn't make too much sense to me is the taking on this controversy really worth it to President Trump I mean from the standpoint of the following this Qatar 747 is going to have to be turned into an Air Force One (Suitable for the President) plane meaning that U.S. authorities have to take this Qatat 747 and add a missile defense system too it; harden the structure of the plane so it can fly through a nuclear radiation cloud and the occupants of the plane won't be killed or severely sickened by radiation, add sophisticated communication which a President needs and add the technology that allows the plane to be refueled in the air, this will probably take the better part of two years so President Trump will have a luxurious 747 for the last two years of his term is this short period of reward worth tarnishing your reputation for integrity over, I don't think so! Today, CNN reported that the cost to do everything that will need to be done to the Qatar 747 plane to make it an Air Force One plane will be $750 million dollars, apparently the plane needs to be completely disassembled to check for listening devices and then reassembled; if Trump takes the Qatar 747 gift and pursues the modification with this price tag it will really set him up for great ridicule because he has repeatedly bragged about how he did an outstanding job in negotiating for the new Air Force One planes from Boeing how Boeing originally quoted over $5 billion for them and how he President Trump stood his ground and wouldn't go to four billion or higher and how he prevailed with the deal ending up being $3.999 billion. People will say why didn't Trump just agree to $4.75 billion for the new Air Force One planes Boeing wouldn't have gotten a fair profit out of the deal and been incentivized to fill the order quickly and Trump would probably have new Air Force One planes right now he could fly around in instead of twelve to forty year old Boeings that are not near the same quality of plane!
theweek.com
