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The Qatar plane has become a giant debacle. First, Trump claimed that the plane was a gift that Qatar offered to him, and he accepted. Qatar claims that Trump asked for the plane and they seem to want legal protections from being accused of bribery.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt waded into this mess when she was asked by a reporter, “ I wanted to just clarify once and for all the Qatari jet, the sale or the gift, because the Kaori government is asking the US to clarify that the jet’s pending transfer was initiated by the Trump administration.”
Leavitt responded:
So is this something that the White House is going to do The the amount of questions we’ve received, and we’ve been incredibly clear, and I have answered this.
The president has answered this. The Department of Defense has answered this. This is a government to government gift transfer from the Qataris. To the Department of Defense, to the United States Air Force, it is now in their hands. And for further details on where that stands, I would defer you to the Department of Defense and the United States Air Force.
I have nothing more for you on that.
Watch the briefing:
The White House press secretary should expect to get a lot of questions when they announce that the president will be accepting a plane worth hundreds of millions of dollars from a foreign country.
If the plane is a gift to the United States, the plane will belong to the United States and the American people forever. This means that when Trump leaves office, he can’t take the plane with him and make it his personal property.
The plane has become a problem for Qatar and for the White House. The story keeps moving around and changing. If the pressure continues on Qatar, it would not be surprising if they withdraw the offer of the plane.
The pressure is working, and it could define the limits of what Trump can get away with in terms of corruption.
This situation is screaming out for an independent investigation.
What do you think of Leavitt’s answer? Let’s talk about it in the comments below.
